Kirti Patel, who has over 1.3 million followers on Instagram, has been arrested in Ahmedabad in connection with a honey-trapping case. The influencer was on the run since June 2024 despite a court-issued warrant following an FIR. Surat Police finally nabbed her on Tuesday.
While Patel was absconding, four others, including Vijay Savani, Zakir Pathan and Janvi aka Manisha Goswami, accused in the same case, were previously arrested.
Kirti Patel honey-trapping case
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Zone-1, Surat, Alok Kumar, revealed that the police were after her on the basis of the warrant issued by the court. The document further highlighted that Kirti Patel had “demanded a ransom of 2 crores from a builder”. Surat-based Vaju Katrodiya is the victim of this honey-trapping case.
The case dates back to June 2, 2024. The co-conspirators lured Katrodiya to a farmhouse under the pretext of a property dispute. When he reached there, Patel allegedly served him the alcohol and later clicked photos of him in “objectionable positions” with Janvi. They eventually used these compromising snaps to extort Rs 2 crore from him. According to the FIR, Patel and co-accused Vijay Savani have also been accused of posting threats related to the property issue and defaming Katrodiya on social media.
Who is Kirti Patel?
Gujarati content creator, who also goes by Kirti Adalja, has shared over 2,000 posts on Instagram. She’s continued to maintain her presence on social media despite being linked to a serious case. Her last IG post, wherein she’s seen interacting with young kids on the street, popped up just five days ago. She has often posted about being in attendance at various religious gatherings, including this year’s Prayag Maha Kumbh Mela in Uttar Pradesh.
Officials have since also noted that she’s emerged as a rather infamous personality on the Internet due to her abusive and threatening posts.
In addition to being as active as ever on her Instagram account, Patel was active on YouTube, too. She started posting in 2019 and has a following of 197,000 subscribers. Her YouTube account also mentions her TikTok page.
In addition to being a person of interest in the Rs 2 crore extortion case, she is also the subject of several other complaints, including encroachment. The police will be recording her statements in connection with all the cases she has been implicated in, while investigations continue in the background.
Kirti Patel was previously linked to an attempted murder case in 2020. Victim Raghu Bharwad, aka Boliyo, accused her of attacking him after a dispute. The accused influencer reportedly insulted him on her then-TikTok account. She eventually filed a counter-complaint against Bharwad, as per TOI.
MoneyControl also reported that the Surat wildlife division fined Patel for Rs 25,000 for posting a TikTok video holding an old.
Where was Kirti Patel arrested?
Over the 10 months she was at large, the police couldn’t pinpoint her location as she kept moving constantly across Gujarat. Additionally, the IP address kept changing, as did her phone numbers and SIM cards. Law enforcement disclosed that they even had to coordinate with Instagram to get her location.
Ultimately, the police traced her location to Sarkhej in Ahmedabad, all thanks to their technical team and cyber experts. DCP Kumar said that once they had a lock on her location, they contacted their counterpart in Ahmedabad and had her arrested.