Gujarat CMO official resigns over son’s links with man who posed as PMO official

Hitesh Pandya, a senior official in the Gujarat Chief Minister’s Office (CMO), has resigned over his son’s alleged links with ‘conman’ Kiran Patel, who was arrested in Jammu and Kashmir earlier this month for posing as a high-ranking official from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

“I have put my resignation as I felt the government is being unnecessarily targeted by a section of the media due to my association with the CMO. I have been working in the CMO for the last 23 years and I am thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for whatever I am today. I will wind up my work by March 31, which will be my last working day,” said 73-year-old Pandya.

An official of the state government, who did not wish to be named, said Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel had asked Pandya to put in his papers and vacate the government accommodation after it was revealed that his son Amit Pandya had accompanied Kiran Patel to Jammu and Kashmir.

A former journalist from Rajkot, Pandya had been working in the Gujarat CMO for about two decades. He met CM Bhupendra Patel on Friday evening and handed over his resignation.

Patel, who posed as a senior officer in the PMO enjoyed Z+ security in the Valley. He also held meetings with senior officers and claimed that he was sent to the Valley to explore the possibility of developing various sectors, including horticulture.

The Gujarat BJP has suspended Amit Pandya from the primary membership of the party, said a BJP official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Kiran Patel was arrested by the J&K police and multiple agencies are probing the reasons for him doing the rounds of the Valley as a fake officer from the PMO and how did he manage to get a Z+ security.

Police are also investigating and interrogating those who have been in touch with him. Besides Amit Pandya, one Jai Sitapara from Saurashtra had also accompanied Patel.

Patel, who already faces three complaints of fraud in the state, was known to flaunt his connections with top BJP leaders on the social media and even posted his pictures with them.

He had also reportedly assured a few diamond merchants to facilitate all clearances if they invested in Jammu and Kashmir. There are at least a couple of first information reports (FIRs) of fraud and cheating filed against him in Gujarat in the past.

The latest complaint against Patel in the Ahmedabad Crime Branch was filed on Thursday by one Jagdish Chavda, 63, a resident of Shilaj in Ahmedabad.

Chavda happens to be the brother of Congress turncoat Jawahar Chavda, who had quit the party to join the BJP and was made a minister in the earlier Vijay Rupani government.

According to the complaint, Patel promised to get his house renovated and help him sell at a handsome price. He took ₹35 lakh from Chavda. When Jagdish returned from his native Junagadh at his house, he was shocked to find that Patel had already put his own name plate on the bungalow and completed the “vastu puja”.

Confronted by Chavda, he vacated the bungalow and promised him to return the ₹35 lakh when he gets paid for a few projects he had bagged from a corporate house. However, in August last year, Chavda was given a notice from the Ahmedabad district court that he had occupied his bungalow illegally.