E-Paper
Gujarat man poses as ISRO scientist who designed Chandrayaan 3 lander; arrested
Mitul Trivedi — who provides tuition classes to students from 12th standard and onwards — claimed he designed Chandrayaan 3's Vikram lander
The Surat Crime Branch on Wednesday nabbed tuition teacher Mitul Trivedi after he gave media interviews claiming that he is the ISRO scientist who designed Chandrayaan 3's Vikram lander. Trivedi forged documents and a letter to further his claim. As per the police, Trivedi — who provides tuition classes to students from 12th standard and onwards — confessed that he drafted the letter because he felt that if he showed such a letter to the parents of students, he would have more students registering for his classes.
In support of his claim, Trivedi created a fake appointment letter of ISRO dated February 26, 2022 in which he claimed to be the assistant chairman of ISRO's Ancient Science Application Department. He had forged another letter in which Trivedi claimed to be a “space research member” for ISRO's upcoming project called “mercury force in space”.
Speaking to reporters, Surat Additional Commissioner of Police Sharad Singhal said that an application was submitted to the Commissioner of Police requesting an investigation into the matter.
In a primary response, ISRO conveyed to the crime branch that the letter was forged and no such letter had been issued by the space research organisation. ISRO will be submitting a detailed response to the Surat police in a few days, Singhal said.
The fake letter comes in light of ISRO carrying out its moon mission by successfully landing Chandrayaan-3 on the south pole of the moon. ISRO is also set to launch its first Sun mission Aditya-L1 this week.
Earlier on Augsut 24, a day after Chandrayaa-3 landed on the moon, posing as an ISRO scientist, Trivedi in an interview to news agency PTI said, “We felt as if we were on the moon, it was the proudest moment.”
Singhal said, “Yesterday, the Crime Branch called Mitul Trivedi to its Chowk Bazar office and conducted a detailed interrogation. Today, it has been established and he has made a confession as well that the letter is forged.”
Trivedi claims that he has B.Com and M.Com degrees but the police are yet to verify it. An FIR has been registered against Trivedi under IPC sections 465, 468, 471 and 419.
