A private tutor in Surat, who allegedly posed as a scientist working with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and gave interviews to the media claiming he designed the lander module for the Chandrayaan-3 moon mission, was arrested on Tuesday, reports PTI.
According to police, the accused Mitul Trivedi, who is in his late 30s, impersonated an ISRO scientist to draw more students for his tuition classes in Surat.
In a statement, police said that Trivedi allegedly posed as the “assistant chairman” of ISRO’s “Ancient Science Application department” and even produced a fake appointment letter dated February 26, 2022 to support his credentials. He also produced a fake letter about being the “space research member” for ISRO’s next project called “mercury force in space”.
“A thorough investigation revealed that the man was in no way connected to ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 mission and had made false claims of being an ISRO employee,” the police said in a statement. He also spread fake messages regarding the ISRO despite not having contributed to the ambitious project, thereby harming the reputation of the Bengaluru-headquartered institution.
Additional Commissioner of Police Sharad Singhal said police contacted ISRO, which clarified that the letter shown by the accused was not issued by it. The space agency will send a detailed reply to us soon, Singhal said.
Trivedi was booked under Indian Penal Code Sections 419 (cheating by impersonation), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 471 (using forged document as genuine).
On August 23, India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft scripted history by making a successful soft landing near the south pole of the moon. The spacecraft with an orbiter, lander and a rover had been launched on July 14 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
This makes India the first country to successfully land on the south pole of the moon, and the fourth country – the United States, the erstwhile Soviet Union and China – to have successfully landed spacecraft on the moon’s surface.