Man Who Fled Delhi's 5-Star Hotel Without Paying Rs 23 Lakh Bill Sent To 2-Day Custody

A Delhi court on Sunday remanded a man arrested for allegedly staying at a five-star hotel in New Delhi for about four months by posing as a functionary of the UAE royal family and fleeing with an outstanding bill of more than Rs 23 lakh in two days' police custody.
?? ?
Duty Magistrate Shivangi Vyas sent Mahamed Sharif for custodial interrogation, noting that police had to recover certain articles from his residence in Delhi, which were allegedly stolen by him.
?? ?
Sharif checked into The Leela Palace hotel on August 1 last year. He stayed in room number 427 for about four months and fled on November 20 with hotel valuables and without paying the bills, police told the court.
?? ?
"Because the recovery of the case property -- the stolen articles -- are yet to be effected, accused Mahamed Sharif be remanded in police custody for two days," the judge said.
?? ?
The accused impersonated a member of the royal family of the United Arab Emirates and booked the hotel room at a discounted price.
?? ?
He was apprehended on January 19 from Karnataka's Puttur and four days' transit remand was taken from a court in the southern state.
?? ?
The counsel for the accused opposed the police's plea for remand, claiming that he was illegally arrested and no article was stolen.
?? ?
According to police, besides cheating the hotel to the tune of Rs 23.46 lakh, he decamped with valuables, including silver bottle holders.
?? ?
The accused 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 gave a fake business card, the police said.
?? ?
It claimed that the accused also provided a UAE resident card on arrival at the hotel.