Srinagar: A court here Tuesday granted bail to Kiran Patel, the man from Gujarat who allegedly conned the security establishment in Jammu and Kashmir into believing him to be a PMO official.
The Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Srinagar, Raja Muhammad Tasleem granted the bail to Patel nearly six months after his arrest.
The court earlier rejected Patel’s two bail applications with the observation that he seemed to be a habitual offender given the fact that five FIRs were registered against him in different places including home state Gujarat.
Besides, the court had observed that the nature of the offence against him was very serious as the accused had tried his level best to dupe the government functionaries and seemed to be “habitual in committing such types of offences”.
Patel, the alleged imposter hailing from Gujarat posed as an Additional Director (Strategy and Campaigns) in the Prime Minister’s Office and enjoyed many perks, including a bulletproof car and security cover besides other hospitality.
Patel was on his third visit to Kashmir when he was nabbed by security officials from a five-star hotel in Nishat area of Srinagar on March 2. In one of the its reports to oppose the bail application, Police had said that Patel had prima facie forged and manufactured some documents including some visiting cards on the basis of which he had defrauded not only a single person or group of person but “extremely elevated class of the society including high officials of the civil administration and Police authorities”.
At the end of the day, the Police had said, Patel succeeded in getting Z category security, a bulletproof vehicle, and “brazenly” enjoyed five star protocol for a considerable period of time.