In a bizarre development, a 5-star hotel has been duped of a whopping ₹23 Lakh by a man who pretended to be an employee of the Abu Dhabi royal family and stayed for over four months before vanishing.
Mohammad Sharif is now under the Delhi Police’s radar, he has been charged with fraud and theft after Leela Palace Hotel management registered the complaint against the fraudster.
Sharif checked into Room 427 of the Leela Palace on August 1 and left quietly on November 20. The hotel staff claims he stole several items from the room, including silver utensils and a pearl tray.
On arriving at the hotel back in August, Sharif introduced himself as a resident of the UAE and said is a close aide of Sheikh Falah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the Abu Dhabi royal family.
He said he worked with the Sheikh personally and was in India on official business. His claim was corroborated by a set of documents which include, a UAE resident card, a business card, and other documents. To sell his story, he routinely chatted with the hotel staff about his life in the UAE.
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The police have taken possession of these documents and inspected them with suspicion of these being fake. The bill for the room and services that he availed for over four-month was ₹35 Lakh. He paid the sum of ₹ 11.5 Lakh and left without paying the rest of the amount. He had given the staff a cheque for ₹ 20 lahks dated November 20, the day he fled the hotel.
Delhi Police are closely monitoring CCTV footage and identifying all the angles to identify the man and nab him at the earliest.