Leela Hotel cheating: "Went to ministries, BJP office, have ideas of 'Digital India'...", accused tells police

New Delhi [India], January 23 : Mahamed Sharif, accused in the Leela Hotel cheating case, during interrogation told the officials of Delhi Police and Intelligence Bureau (IB) that he has several ideas on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative 'Digital India' and that social media giants like Google, Facebook and WhatsApp should also be made in India, sources said on Monday.
According to sources, placed in Delhi Police, it was learned, during the investigations, that the person in custody is sharp-minded and has visited offices of several ministries and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) office with his several ideas to be executed.
Mahamed Sharif, who is accused of posing as a UAE government official and duping Leela Hotel of over Rs 20 lakhs, was grilled for three hours by the officials of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Special Cell on Sunday after he was granted two-day police custody by a court.
"The South West Delhi's District Investigation Unit (DIU) led by Inspector Ranveer Singh and Sanjay Kundu, are investigating the case and officials of IB and special cell stepped in after it was revealed that the accused has written several letters to the Prime Minister, the Home Minister and many ministers and has also visited many ministries earlier," sources told ANI.
Sources also said that Mahamed Sharif has visited the Bharatiya Janata Party office also.
"The accused during interrogation told that he had many ideas related to Digital India, like Google, Facebook, and WhatsApp should also be made in India, for this, he had gone to the offices of ministries to give some ideas, but was not entertained much there. He told that he had also gone to the BJP office to meet big leaders to give his ideas but could not meet anyone," sources said.
Adding to this, sources said that the accused revealed during interrogation that he has worked as a personal secretary in Dubai for seven years.
"Sharif used to search for random people to invest in his business plan at Leela Hotel, but no one gave a positive response to him. Following this out of desperation he decided to leave Leela Hotel," sources added.
According to Delhi Police sources, the investigation team also took Mahamed to the flat where he was staying after leaving the Leela hotel, in fact, the police team wants to recover the goods which he had stolen from there, but the police did not recover anything special from there.
According to sources, the accused during interrogation claimed that his briefcase is present in Leela Hotel, which has foreign clothes worth Rs 40-50 lakhs.
"Mahamed Sharif was allowed to talk to his counsel and family members via video conference," sources said, adding that he has assured to pay the dues of the hotel.
Sharif allegedly posed as an official of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) government at the Leela Hotel and duped it of over Rs 20 lakh after checking out undetected without clearing the outstanding bill.
He was arrested by the Delhi Police on Sunday.
Sharif (41), hailing from Karnataka's Dakshin Kannada, produced a fake business card and stayed at the hotel for nearly three months last year, the police revealed.
It was alleged that apart from not settling the outstanding bill, he also stole some valuable items from the hotel, resulting in a net loss estimated at Rs 23,46,413.
Mahamed Sharif will be produced before the court again on Tuesday. "Police will not apply for another police custody," sources added.