Man who fled Delhi’s 5-star hotel without paying Rs 23 lakh bill sent to 2-day custody

New Delhi, Jan 22 (PTI) A Delhi court on Sunday remanded a man arrested for allegedly staying at a five-star hotel here 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.

“Considering the fact that 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.