Surat tuition teacher arrested for posing as ISRO scientist, claimed to be part of Chandrayaan-3 mission

A man from Gujarat has been arrested by the Surat Crime Branch of Police for posing as a scientist with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and giving interviews to media in Surat in which he claimed that he has designed the lander module (Vikram) for Chandrayaan-3 the space agency’s third moon mission. The man, Mitul Trivedi, was arrested from Surat on Tuesday. Trivedi, who is in his late 30s, also impersonated as an ISRO scientists to get more students to his tuition class in Surat city, police said.

#WATCH | Gujarat | On 29th August, the Surat Crime Branch of Police nabbed a man, identified as Mitul Trivedi, who made false claims of being a scientist at the ISRO and also made forged documents for the same. Police say that he has confessed to the crime. pic.twitter.com/zf5IkvVej8

— ANI (@ANI) August 30, 2023

In a statement, Surat Police said that after a thorough investigation, it was revealed that Trivedi was in no way connected to ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 mission. “He had made false claims of being an ISRO employee,” the police statement read. Trivedi also allegedly produced a fake letter about being the “space research member” for ISRO’s next project called “mercury force in space”. ISRO’s fake scientist arrested from Surat A complaint against Trivedi was filed after he was seen giving interviews to the local media following the successful soft landing of the Vikram lander on the lunar surface on 23 August. He even allegedly claimed that he had designed the module of Chandrayaan-3, police said. Trivedi allegedly posed as the “assistant chairman” of ISRO’s “Ancient Science Application department” and even produced a fake appointment letter dated 26 February, 2022, to support his credentials. Became ISRO scientist to get students for his tuition Briefing media about the incident, Surat Additional Commissioner of Police, Sharad Singhal said, “Crime Branch contacted ISRO and a primary response was received from ISRO that the letter is forged and no such letter has been issued by them. They also said that they would give us a detailed reply within a few days.” Singhal further said that the Crime Branch, on Tuesday, called Mitul Trivedi to its Chowk Bazar office and conducted a detailed interrogation. “Today (Wednesday), it has been established and he has made a confession as well that the letter is forged. He said that he drafted the letter because he runs tuition classes and he felt that if he showed such a letter to the parents of students, he would have more students coming in,” the Additional Commissioner of Police, Surat said. The Surat city crime branch lodged an FIR (first information report) against the accused under sections 419 (cheating by impersonation), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), and 471 (using forged document as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), it stated. “He claimed to possess B.Com and M.Com degrees,” the police said. An FIR against Trivedi has been lodged by the Surat city crime branch under sections 419 (cheating by impersonation), 465 (forgery), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating), and 471 (using forged document as genuine) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC). “The investigation has been done by SOG…” Singhal said. With inputs from agencies