ATS nabs imposter posing as Narendra Modi's PA

Ahmedabad, Jan 10 (UNI) Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has nabbed Bharat Virjibhai Patel for cheating several people of over Rs one crore, by posing as the Personal Assistance (PA) of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

Gujarat ATS director general Rajan Priyadarshi told reporters here today that Bharat and his accomplice Kalubhai Badsinh Zala had been posing as PA to Mr Modi and had been duping people with false promises ranging from clearing land deals to transfers of top rank administrative officers to recruitments of policemen in last ten years.

Mr Priyadarshi said, Bharat, a resident of posh Satellite area of the city, had been nabbed after specific information by the ATS officials from the city, yesterday.

He said Bharat had cheated several people including Nimesh Patel, Deputy Collector of Porbandar district for transferring him to Surat district in year-2003.

Bharat duped one Poonam Ramabhai Patel of Rs 43 lakh. Of this amount, Rs 10 lakh was for clearing a land deal and Rs 33 lakh for giving him a contract of school uniforms for lakhs of school children under the Central Government scheme of 'Sarva Shikhsha Abhiyaan'.

So far in interrogation, Bharat has confessed that he started as an ordinary cheat in 1994 but in year-2003, when told that he resembled the PA to Mr Modi, he started posing himself as PA to the Chief Minister and cheated people.

When asked, Mr Priyadarshi said, it is likely that more cheating cases will come up once the photos of Bharat and Kalu would be released in the media.

UNI