The Central Crime Branch officials arrested a 23-year-old youth from Jharkhand, who was posing as a scientist with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to impress his girlfriend.
The imposter was exposed when the cheque he issued to the owner of a flat in HMT Layout which he had rented for his girlfriend bounced.
Murshid Akmal, a native of Itaki town in Ranchi district of Jharkhand, is a PU dropout while his girlfriend is pursuing her engineering degree in Jharkhand. In order to impress her, Akmal lied to her he was working for ISRO and was a scientist in PSLV project in Bangalore.
Some months ago, his girlfriend informed she was coming to Bangalore on a project work with her friends and Akmal boasted that he would make the necessary arrangements for her stay.
A besotted Akmal then rented a car for a monthly rent of Rs. 35,000 and pasted a Government of India sticker on it. He also downloaded ISRO’s logo from the internet and created a fake ID card. He also rented a flat in Platinum City on HMT Road near Peenya to accommodate her.
Car on rent
When his girlfriend arrived, he received her in his car and took her to the apartment. Everything went well for two months until the money Akmal borrowed from friends and family ran out and it was only a matter of time when the landlord turned up, demanding his rent. In order to escape immediate embarrassment, Akmal wrote him a cheque which subsequently bounced due to insufficient funds.
When the owner of the flat tried to contact Akmal, he started avoiding him. This led the landlord to file a police complaint.
The police tracked down Akmal on Suranjan Das Road in HAL III Stage and detailed questioning led him to confess. The police then duly informed the girlfriend.
The police are further questioning him to ascertain whether he had any intention to get into ISRO campus.
