VC Roy. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Aug. 11: A middle-aged man, claiming to be a scientist and defaulting on hotel bills worth lakhs, finally ran out of luck and landed in police net today.

Claiming to be a senior officer of a New Delhi-based broadband company, V.C. Roy, a middle-aged man, had been staying at Gargi Grand Hotel in the state capital since July 13 but apparently had no money to pay up accumulated bills of a whopping Rs 3.76 lakh.

With the hotel management demanding payment, Roy went to the chief judicial magistrate’s court and filed a petition that he had been forcefully confined to the hotel.

The well-built man was brought to Gandhi Maidan police station today after the hotel lodged an FIR against him yesterday.

The police, who are investigating the matter, seem sure about the fact that the man is of dubious character and his antecedents are being checked at the moment.

Roy, who claims to work with World Broadband Communications Limited, which apparently deals with broadband services in New Delhi, said he had come to Patna on July 13 for a job related to the recently-launched video-conferencing initiative of the state government.

“I had come for two to three days but our work got stuck time and again and I had to stay on. Our company organised some conferences in the hotel conference hall, which led to the big bill amount. So the hotel management began asking for the payment and I gave them two cheques amounting to Rs 85,000 and Rs 95,000 respectively on July 30. Unfortunately, both the cheques bounced after which the hotel management started to threaten me and confined me,” Roy alleged.

He said the hotel management confined him to his sixth floor room. “During this time, I got a call on my room phone. The caller threatened that I would be killed if I didn’t pay up the amount,” Roy alleged.

Roy thereafter had talks with the hotel management and gave in writing that all the bills would be cleared off by August 9.

But then on August 8, Roy went to the CJM’s court and lodged a petition of forceful confinement for a week. The hotel management denied the charges.

“We are conducting business here and just want our money against the bills charged on Roy. There cannot be any question of forceful confinement. Had it been so, how did the man go to the CJM’s court by himself and file the petition? His signature is there on the petition. His room was always open and a lot of people used come and go. He was staying in the hotel and used the conference room too. And he has got a bill to pay up for that. Ours is a professional hotel and we take our prestige very seriously. Our management has lodged an FIR against him,” said Abhishek Devnath, the manager of the hotel.

The police said the matter was being investigated.

“The police are checking his background at this moment. The person has stayed in the hotel and he should be paying for that. All angles are being looked into and things would get clear soon,” said city superintendent of police, Patna Central, Shivdeep Lande. Police sources said the person was not divulging any detail about his family.

“We have been asking him for contact numbers of his family members in New Delhi which he has denied giving. Also, no one turned up at the police station vouching for him too,” an officer with Gandhi Maidan police station said.