Who Is Kirti Patel, Influencer Arrested For Honeytrapping Gujarat Builder

Social media influencer Kirti Patel was arrested on Wednesday in Ahmedabad after evading police for more than 10 months in connection with a high-profile honey trapping and extortion case in Surat.

She allegedly blackmailed a real estate builder in Surat and demanded crores. The case against her was registered on June 2 last year, after which a local court issued a warrant for her arrest. Four others named in the FIR were previously taken into custody.

Surat Police said Patel managed to stay off the radar by constantly changing locations across Gujarat, using different SIM cards, and masking her digital footprint with multiple IP addresses. She was finally tracked down to the Sarkhej area of Ahmedabad with the help of cyber surveillance and coordination with Instagram.

The police also confirmed that Patel is facing multiple other complaints, including allegations of land grabbing and extortion.

Who Is Kirti Patel?

• Kirti Patel, also known as Kirti Adalja, is a Gujarati digital content creator with over 1.3 million followers on Instagram. She often posts videos that feature her riding bikes and engaging with the public. 
• Despite being on the run for over a year in connection with the high-profile extortion case, Patel remained highly active on social media. Her last Instagram post, uploaded five days before her arrest, shows her interacting with young children on the street.
• Kirti Patel has frequently posted about attending religious events, including the Mahakumbh Mela in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, earlier this year. 
• She also maintains a presence on YouTube, where she has nearly two lakh subscribers and has been posting since 2019. In a recent video, she shared a news clip related to an FIR being quashed and thanked her supporters for standing by her.
• In 2020, she was linked to an attempted murder case involving Raghu Bharwad alias Boliyo, who accused her of attacking him following a dispute and publicly insulting him on TikTok. Patel reportedly filed a counter-complaint against him, as per a report in the Times of India.
• That same year, Kirti Patel was fined Rs 25,000 by the forest department after she posted a TikTok video holding an owl, a protected species under wildlife law. The penalty was imposed by the Surat Wildlife Division for violating the Wildlife Protection Act.