New DelhiA man has been arrested and sent on remand by a Delhi court for allegedly staying in a five-star hotel for four months while posing as a member of the UAE royal family and carrying outstanding bills of over Rs 23 lakh. Duty Magistrate Shivangi Vyas sent Mehmed Sharif for custodial interrogation and ordered the police to recover some articles from his residence in Delhi which were allegedly stolen by him.
The person stayed in the hotel for 3-4 months, then ran away
According to the police, Sharif checked into the Leela Palace Hotel on August 1 last year and stayed in room number 427 for four months before fleeing on November 20 without paying the hotel’s valuables and bills. The judge said that “keeping in view the fact that the case property – the stolen goods – is yet to be recovered, accused Mehmed Sharif be remanded to police custody for two days.”
Impersonated members of the Royal Family of the United Arab Emirates
The accused had impersonated a member of the UAE royal family and booked a hotel room at a discounted price. He was arrested on January 19 from Puttur in Karnataka and obtained a four-day transit remand from a court in the southern state.
The counsel for the accused opposed the police plea for remand, claiming that he was arrested illegally and no goods were stolen. However, according to the police, apart from swindling Rs 23.46 lakh from the hotel, he also made away with valuables including a silver bottle holder. Police said the accused had registered himself at the hotel as an important functionary of the “Office of His Highness Sheikh Falah bin Zayed Al Nahyan” of the UAE government and had given a fake business card. Additionally, it was claimed that the accused also provided the UAE Resident Card on reaching the hotel.
(With PTI inputs)