Gujarat man arrested for impersonating ISRO scientist involved in Chandrayaan-3 mission

Mitul Trivedi, a tutor, was apprehended by the Surat Crime Branch on August 30 after making claims in media interviews that he was the ISRO scientist responsible for creating Chandrayaan 3's Vikram lander. To support his argument, Trivedi used falsified letters and papers.

According to the police, Trivedi, who offers tuition programmes to children from the 12th grade and up, admitted that he wrote the letter because he thought that if he showed it to the parents of students, more would sign up for his classes.

Trivedi fabricated a fictitious ISRO appointment letter dated February 26, 2022 to back his claim that he was the associate chairperson of the ISRO's Ancient Science Application Department. Trivedi had fabricated a different letter in which he identified himself as a "space research member" for the future "mercury force in space" project of ISRO.

Sharad Singhal, the additional commissioner of police for Surat, told reporters that the commissioner of police has received a request for an investigation into the situation.

The crime branch received a primary reaction from ISRO informing them that the letter was fake and that no such letter had ever been issued by the space research outfit. In a few days, Singhal said, ISRO will provide the Surat police with a comprehensive response.

The fictitious letter was sent after ISRO completed its moon mission by successfully putting Chandrayaan-3 down on the moon's south pole. This week, ISRO is also planning to launch Aditya-L1, its first Sun mission.

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.”