Ahmedabad: Malini Patel, the wife of conman Kiran Patel who was recently arrested for impersonating a PMO official during a trip to Jammu and Kashmir, was on Tuesday detained in connection with a cheating case filed against the couple in Gujarat, officers said.
The Ahmedabad police crime branch registered a first information report (FIR) against the couple on March 22 on the basis of a complaint filed by Jagdish Chavda, brother of former Gujarat minister and BJP leader Jawahar Chavda.
According to the FIR, Jagdish Chavda was approached by the accused couple last year, when he had put up his bungalow in Shilaj area of Ahmedabad for sale.
“Kiran Patel won Chavda’s trust by claiming he worked at the PMO and was a co-owner of a popular cafe joint in Ahmedabad,” a senior police officer said, requesting anonymity. “Patel also claimed that he was into construction and promised to get Chavda’s house renovated and help him sell it at a handsome price. For this, Patel took ₹35 lakh from Chavda in instalments.”
While the renovation work was on, Chavda had to visit his native place in Junagadh for some work. When he returned, he found that Patel had put his own name plate on the bungalow and even carried out a “vastu puja” or a house-warming ceremony, said the FIR, a copy of which HT has seen.
{{/usCountry}}While the renovation work was on, Chavda had to visit his native place in Junagadh for some work. When he returned, he found that Patel had put his own name plate on the bungalow and even carried out a “vastu puja” or a house-warming ceremony, said the FIR, a copy of which HT has seen.
{{/usCountry}}Confronted by Chavda, Patel vacated the bungalow and promised him to return the ₹35 lakh. However, in August last year, Chavda learnt through a notice from the Ahmedabad district court that Patel had filed a civil suit claiming ownership of the property, said the officer cited above.
On March 22, a case was registered against the Kiran and Malini Patel under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), 170 (personating a public servant) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the crime branch said in a statement.
On Tuesday, Malini Patel was caught from Jambusar in Gujarat’s Bharuch district. During her questioning, she told the police that she was unaware of what her husband did for a living, the officer said. “She admitted that the couple had carried out some renovation work in Chavda’s bungalow and even invited guests by distributing pamphlets for ‘Vastu Puja’ when the owner was away,” the officer added.
Besides this case, she is also named as accused in another cheating case filed in 2019, while her husband is accused in four cases of fraud.
Earlier this month, her husband Kiran Patel was arrested by the J&K Police for impersonating a top PMO official, based on which he was accorded Z+ security in the Valley. He had also held meetings with senior officials and claimed that he was sent to the Valley to explore the possibility of developing various sectors, including horticulture.