Influencer, With 1 Million Followers, Arrested For Honeytrapping Builder In Gujarat

A social media influencer who had been on the run for over 10 months after allegedly honeytrapping a builder and trying to extort crores from him has been arrested in Ahmedabad.

The police said a case had been registered against Kirti Patel, who has 1.3 million followers on Instagram, in Surat on June 2 last year and a warrant had also been issued against her by a court some time later. 

"Patel was accused of honeytrapping a builder in Surat and then blackmailing him, demanding crores. Four other people were also named in the first information report (FIR) and had been arrested earlier," said an official, adding that the influencer has also been named in other complaints of land grabbing and extortion. 

Despite a warrant being issued by a court in Surat, Patel managed to evade the police by changing cities and using different SIM cards on her phone.

She was tracked down to the Sarkhej area of Ahmedabad and the Surat Police took the help of counterparts in the city to arrest her on Wednesday.

"We had been trying to track Kirti Patel down for 10 months. With the help of our technical team and cyber experts, we tracked her location to Sarkhej in Ahmedabad. We contacted our counterparts in Ahmedabad and arrested her. She has been accused of honeytrapping and extortion... In these 10 months, her location kept changing constantly, in different parts of Gujarat. The IP address kept changing, as did her phone numbers and SIM cards. We also coordinated with Instagram to get her location," said Deputy Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar. 

"There are several other complaints against Patel as well, including of land grabbing and extortion. We will record her statements in these cases as well, and investigate them further," he added.

Mr Kumar urged people to go to police stations or even the ACP or DCP's office and lodge complaints if they are facing any extortion attempts.

(With inputs from Mahendra Prasad)