Mohammed Sharif checked into Room 427 of the Leela Palace on August 1.
New Delhi: A man pretended to be an employee of the Abu Dhabi royal family to stay at a luxury hotel in Delhi for four months, racking up a bill of Rs 23 lakh before vanishing.
The Delhi Police are looking for Mohammed Sharif, who has been charged with fraud and theft on a complaint by the Leela Palace Hotel management on Saturday.
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 in August, Sharif had told the staff that he was a resident of UAE and worked closely with 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. He even produced a business card, a UAE resident card and other documents to corroborate his story. To sell his story, he routinely chatted with the hotel staff about his life in the UAE.
The police are inspecting these documents, suspecting them to be fake.
The bill for the room and services over his four-month stay was Rs 35 lakh. He paid Rs 11.5 lakh and left without paying the rest. He had given the staff a cheque for Rs 20 lakh dated November 20, the day he fled the hotel.
Delhi police are scanning CCTV cameras to identify the man.