Srinagar:

The Enforcement Directorate’s Srinagar Zonal Office has filed a Prosecution Complaint against conman Kiran Patel who availed of security from the Jammu and Kashmir administration by passing himself off as a Prime Minister’s Office functionary and also duped several Gujarat-based businessmen by promising them opportunities in the Kashmir Valley, an official statement said on Saturday.

The complaint, under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, was filed before the special PMLA court, Srinagar, on October 28 and the court has issued notice to Patel, a resident of Ahmedabad, to appear before it on November 27.

The ED initiated its investigation on the basis of the FIR registered by Nishat Police Station, Srinagar, against Patel and others for the offences under various sections of the Indian Penal Code.

The financial probe agency’s investigation revealed that Patel sought to pass himself as Additional Director, Strategy and Campaigns, PMO and fraudulently created/printed fake visiting cards to fake his identity to fulfil his ulterior motives to dupe people and generate proceeds of crime.

“By using the said fake visiting cards and impersonation, not only did he illicitly avail the security from the administration of the UT of J&K government which has caused a loss of resources and monetary loss to the state exchequer but also, he duped gullible Gujarat-based businessmen and secured/got undue advantages by making a false promise to provide business opportunities in the Valley of Kashmir,” the statement said.

The ED had conducted search operations under the PMLA on May 19, 2023, at various premises linked with Patel and others resulting in the seizure of incriminating documents/records & electronic devices.

Further investigations are in progress, it said.

Patel was granted bail by a Srinagar court on August 29, 2023, on a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh with 2 sureties.

J&K Police had arrested him on March 3, 2023, for allegedly impersonating a PMO functionary.

The authorities said that Patel got facilities normally given to officials from the PMO including a bulletproof car, security personnel and official accommodation at a five-star hotel during his visits to Jammu and Kashmir.

The conman, who faces over half a dozen cheating cases in Gujarat, was arrested in the state in August 2023 on charges of cheating a Morbi-based businessman of Rs 48 lakh.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

He befriended women online and asked them to marry him. And once he had earned the women’s trust, he would disappear with their money. This was the modus operandi of Mukeem Khan, a conman who had cheated over 50 women across the country, including a woman judge who failed to see through his lies.

Khan, 38, a resident of Pratapgarh in Uttar Pradesh, was arrested by the Delhi Police Crime Branch recently for extorting money from women on false pretexts.

He created multiple accounts on matrimonial websites with fake identities and trapped women in his intricate web of lies.

Khan told the cops he used to target Muslim women – unmarried, widowed and divorced – for marriage. He introduced himself as a government officer and enticed them with fake stories about his wife being dead and he being unable to take care of his daughter.

Khan, who is married and has three children, used to share photos of his wife and daughter with these women. He even met their families and fix the wedding date. Once he had earned their trust, he would ask for money to book marriage halls or for other wedding expenses.

And then, he would disappear.

During his interrogation, he revealed he had conned over 50 women across the country. A woman judge from Uttar Pradesh too was among his victims.

How it started

Khan created his first matrimonial website in 2020 – six years after his first marriage. It is where he found his first target – a Vadodara-based divorced woman with a five-year-old daughter – and proposed to marry her. She agreed.

Before leaving Vadodara, he faked a story about losing his wallet and took Rs 30,000 from her. He returned and started living with her, but the idea of earning easy money had him hooked.

In 2023, he married another woman – a widow – in Delhi with another fake story.

This continued – in different states, in different cities.

He received expensive gifts like mobile phones, jewellery and even two-wheelers from these women, and later sold those. If he couldn’t manage to lure them into buying gifts for him, he would fake a story about his ATM card not working or a shortage of money.

In one such incident, he booked a two-wheeler as a gift for a woman, paying only a token amount. Citing shortage, he asked her to pay the rest, and disappeared during the first ride.