‘Acting out of pity’, constable rides motorcycle for 40 km to help ‘CMO imposter’ escape from police custody

Patel was initally arrested in April for the rape of a woman and posing as an official of Gujarat Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) in Vadodara. A court on Tuesday granted the police Patel’s 9-day custody to probe his alleged escape from custody on November 10.

Vadodara Deputy Commissioner of Police (Zone 2) Abhay Soni said, “The constable told us that he pitied Patel, who apparently told him to help him meet his mother in Anand, after which he would return to the police station. Hitendrasinh was on escort duty and accompanied Patel to the court on November 10 in a police vehicle… The two, however, slipped away from the court premises on a motorcycle, which Hitendrasinh was riding.”

He added that while the constable has maintained that he “acted out of pity”, Patel has claimed that the two had struck a deal in return for Bharatsinh’s help.

Soni said, “We are investigating how the motorcycle arrived at the court premises and if the two had planned this escape… The constable has maintained that he was lured by the story narrated by Patel and he was surprised when Patel escaped from Anand, where he was supposedly meeting his mother. Patel, however, has claimed that there was a deal involved in which he was to pay Hitendrasinh… the accused is shrewd and a smooth-talker.”

After the November 10 incident, the Gotri police station had booked Patel and Bharatsinh under Section 224 (obstruction by a person to his lawful apprehension and initiated a probe) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Patel, who was lodged at the Vadodara Central Jail before he escaped, was found hiding in Tripura, Assam and Mizoram, “looking for an escape out of India”, the Vadodara Crime Branch had said in a statement after he was allegedly arrested from the Assam-Mizoram border on December 4.

Patel, a resident of Sargasan village in Gandhinagar, was arrested in April after he allegedly posed as an official of the CMO and the president of GIFT City in Gandhinagar during a brawl at a multiplex in Vadodara. At that time, a Mumbai-based woman was accompanying him.

When the police called out his bluff, the woman filed a police complaint, accusing Patel of raping her several times from April 8 after promising to make her the “brand ambassador” of GIFT City.

Following this, the police lodged a sou motu FIR against Patel, booking him under sections 170 (pretending to hold office as a public servant), 417 (punishment for cheating), 467 (forgery of a valuable security), 468 (forgery of a document with the intention of cheating) and 471 (dishonestly using a forged document as genuine) of the IPC.

In another FIR lodged on the basis of the complaint filed by the woman, Patel was booked under sections 406 (criminal breach of trust), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly), and 376(2)(n) (repeated rape on the same woman) of the IPC.