Honey-trap: How social media influencer Kirti Patel evaded arrest for over ten months

Gujarat Police on Wednesday arrested a social media influencer who had been on the run for over 10 months after being named in a honey-trapping case.

 

According to police, Kirti Patel, who has over 1.3 million followers on Instagram, was arrested from Ahmedabad.

 

The Surat Police, based on a complaint by the builder, had filed an FIR against Kirti and four others on June 2 last year, and a local court had also issued a warrant against her.

 

All the other four accused have already been arrested.

 

Alok Kumar, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Zone-1, Surat, said the accused had demanded a ransom of Rs 2 crore from the builder after allegedly luring him into a honey trap.

 

"In June 2024, an FIR was registered for honey-trapping. Of the five accused, four were arrested while Kirti Patel was on the run for the last 10 months. We had arrested her based on the warrant issued by the court and produced her before the court,” Kumar said.

 

According to the police, Kirti managed to evade arrest by changing cities and using different SIM cards on her phone.

 

The Surat Police, with the help of a technical team and cyber experts, tracked her down to the Sarkhej area of Ahmedabad and nabbed her.

 

“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," Kumar was quoted as saying by NDTV.

India