‘NASA Arun’ did not use his passport ever

Kochi: The State police has launched a probe into the incident of Manimala native Arun making fake claims that the US space research agency NASA had relaxed a citizenship rule for giving him a job.

In another development Arun's former lecturers at the College of Engineering found that he had not used his passport to travel outside India ever. A team of Special Branch officials had been to Arun's house on Tuesday and collected the documents including his passport.

It was Jayanath Jayanthan, SP, Telecommunications department of the state police who launched the initial probe. He had found that the claims made by Arun were wrong.

"We are yet to verify the certificates and the documents produced by Arun,” said Manimala CI Abdul Rahim MA.

Read: NASA fraudster unties bundle of lies to Deccan Chronicle

The police initiated action pursuant to a story published by Deccan Chronicle. Apart from the police team a four-member team of lecturers of the College of Engineering, Poonjar where Arun studied, also visited Arun's home at Manimala, Kottayam.

According to Dr Minu K.K., lecturer in mathematics, Arun's passport had never been used. Rajesh K.K., assistant professor, computer science, inspected the passport and found that there was no entry in it. "There was no entry in his passport. After the news came, we decided to meet Arun. He stuck to his initial version about his US visit and his NASA connections. But after verifying the passport we came to know that all the claims were lies. We are extremely disappointed that he lied to us", said Rajesh K.K.

Sreekumar K, assistant professor, computer science and Joe Francis, assistant professor in mechanical engineering were the other members of the team which visited Arun's house. Arun got his passport in 2012.

According to Kottayam SP M.P.Dinesh, IPS, no case had been registered. "We have not received any complaint from anyone. We will take up the issue if necessary”, he added.