Malini Patel, the wife of Kiran Patel who was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir Police for posing as an additional director (strategy and campaigns) in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and enjoying security cover besides other hospitality, has defended her husband claiming that he cannot do anything wrong.
“My husband is an engineer and I am a doctor. My husband went there for development work as he is an engineer and nothing else. He has done nothing wrong. Our advocate there is looking after the matter. My husband will never do wrong to anyone. I cannot comment further,” India Today quoted Malini Patel as saying.
HT also reached out to Malini who said she did not want to comment and pointed all questions to their lawyer, Gujarat-based high court advocate Nishar Vaidhya.
Who is Kiran Patel and how he conned Jammu and Kashmir cops:
1. Kiran Patel had claimed he had been given mandate by the government to identify buyers for apple orchards in south Kashmir and a couple of IAS officers were in awe of him as he had been dropping names of high-ranking bureaucrats and politicians in New Delhi.
2. He was on his third visit to the Kashmir valley and was subsequently arrested by alert security officials on March 3.
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3. During Patel’s earlier visit to Kashmir, he had travelled to tourist hotspots like Gulmarg claiming that the government had tasked him to look for improvement of hotel facilities in the area.
4. Patel has over 1,500 followers on Twitter. His Twitter bio reads he is a resident of “34, Meena Baug, New Delhi”; a PHD from a college in Virginia, an MBA from IIM Trichy; “thinker, strategist, analyst, and campaign manager”.
5. Dressed in a Nehru jacket and sunglasses, his social media posts show he went to one location to another in the conflict-ridden Union Territory with a huge police entourage, reportedly Z-plus security cover, carrying weapons around him.
6. Officials investigating the case told HT that, Patel had held several meetings with top bureaucrats in the Valley, often promising prize postings. In his meetings with political leaders, he told them he had been sent to check the pulse of the political situation “on behalf of PMO”.
7. Among the places Patel visited with security cover were Kaman Post on the Line of Control, and Lal Chowk in Srinagar, and Spice Park in south Kashmir’s Pulwama.
How was Kiran Patel arrested?
1. According to court documents, Kiran Patel was on his third visit to the Kashmir valley and was subsequently arrested by alert security officials on March 3.
2. The Jammu & Kashmir Police said the CID wing of the state police intimated the SSP Srinagar of the presence of an impersonator at the Lalit Hotel. “The particulars of this person were found as Kiran Bhai Patel…who was impersonating himself as Additional Director (strategy and campaigns) PMO, New Delhi. As his replies were found suspicious, he was taken to Nishat police station, where he admitted his crime. Ten fake visiting cards and two mobiles were seized from him,” the police said in a statement on Friday.
3. He has been arrested under sections related to cheating and forgery. The case, police said, is in the initial stage of investigations, adding that he had three previous cases of cheating and forgery in Vadodara, Ahmedabad and Bayad.
(With inputs from Mir Ehsan Srinagar and Maulik Pathak in Ahmedabad)
