Srinagar, Mar 19: Police on Sunday ruled out “intelligence failure” regarding a man from Gujarat being able to con the security establishment into believing him to be a PMO official and getting the requisite perks prior to his arrest earlier this month.
Kiran Patel, the 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. Kiran Patel was on his third visit to the Kashmir Valley when he was nabbed by security officials from a five-star hotel in Nishat area of Srinagar on March 2.
“There has been a proper FIR in this case. See, when Srinagar police got information on March 2, a team headed by a senior IPS officer arrested him red handed. Fake visiting cards were recovered,” ADGP Kashmir Vijay Kumar (IPS) told reporters on the sidelines of a police-organized foot tournament here. “Rigorous interrogation was done. He remained under police custody for 14 days. He is presently in judicial remand. He is in jail completely,” he said, adding, “We are professionally carrying out investigation. We are taking help from Gujarat police and nobody will be spared”.
Asked about “clear cut” guidelines by MHA that no security should be given to anyone on verbal instructions, he said, “The SOP is there from the beginning. Instructions come from time to time. Police should not provide security to anyone on verbal instructions. We don’t. The mistake which has happened is being looked into and action will be taken against the officer who has given instructions.”
Asked if it was an intelligence failure, the ADGP responded in negative, saying “we cannot call it intelligence failure. There has been negligence at the field officer level and action will be taken.”
The officer also said that crimes are not increasing but crime reporting is increasing.
“Crimes are not increasing but crime reporting is increasing. Earlier, many crimes were concealed by family and society but it is good that the trust of people have increased on police and whenever there is any crime, people visit police stations and report the crime,” he said, adding, “Investigations then follow. We are focusing on social crimes and we book the culprit and through the judicial process we convict the culprit.”
