Who Is Kirti Patel? Influencer With One Million Followers Arrested For Extortion In Gujarat

Social media influencer Kirti Patel, who was on the run for months in an alleged honeytrap and extortion case involving a Surat-based builder, has been arrested by Ahmedabad Police. With over 1.3 million followers on Instagram, Patel had been evading arrest for more than 10 months, according to the police.

She is accused of attempting to extort crores from the builder, following which a case was registered against her on June 2 last year. Subsequently, a court had also issued a warrant against her, but she continued to evade arrest.

"Patel was accused of honey-trapping 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," NDTV cited a police officer as saying. The report added that the influencer has also been named in other complaints of land grabbing and extortion. 

According to Gujarat Samachar, Patel was arrested based on a complaint filed by Surat-based builder Vajubhai Katrodia, who accused her of attempting to extort Rs 2 crore.

According to police, Kirti Patel kept changing cities and using different SIM cards to evade arrest. She was finally tracked down and arrested in the Sarkhej area of Ahmedabad. On Wednesday, the Surat police, with the help of their counterparts in the area, at last arrested Patel after months of efforts.

Confirming the development, Deputy Commissioner of Police Alok Kumar said that the police had been searching for Kirti Patel for 10 months, using cyber tracking and technical support to trace her movements. She was eventually located in Sarkhej, Ahmedabad, and arrested with local police assistance.

"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," he said, the NDTV report added.

The police even coordinated with Instagram to trace her location.

The deputy commissioner added that Patel is facing multiple cases of land grabbing and extortion. 

"We will record her statements in these cases as well, and investigate them further," he added.

He further urged the public to come forward with their complaints if they have also been victims of similar extortion attempts.

A digital creator, Patel is popular for creating her videos in the Gujarati language. Even when she was absconding, the influencer kept posting on her Instagram account. This is evident from her Instagram posts about visiting Mahakumbh in Prayagraj earlier this year. She has also shared a video message with her followers in April while celebrating her birthday.

On YouTube, the influencer has nearly 2 lakh subscribers. In one of her videos, she shared a news clip about an FIR being quashed and thanked her supporters for standing by her.

Her earliest YouTube videos date back to 2019 and suggest that she initially gained popularity through the now-banned social media platform TikTok.