Senior Gujarat govt official quits over son's links with conman Kiran Patel

Hitesh Pandya, a senior official in the Gujarat Chief Minister's office, has resigned after a huge uproar over his son being part of a team led by a man who falsely claimed to be a PMO official during multiple visits to Jammu and Kashmir.

Pandya, who has been working in the Gujarat chief minister's public relations team since 2001, said he was resigning in spite of his son being innocent because he doesn't want the image of the Prime Minister's Office and the Gujarat Chief Minister's Office to be tarnished.

His son, Amit Pandya, has reportedly been suspended as a party member by the Gujarat BJP.

The J&K police have made Amit and an aide of his witnesses in the case against Kiran Patel, the conman who secured high security, 5-star accommodation and met several officials in Kashmir after posing as a senior bureaucrat in the PMO.

Also Watch: Explained: how 'conman' Kiran Patel allegedly hoodwinked security forces in Kashmir