21 email IDs: How Surat man lived illegally at IIT-Bombay for 14 days

IIT Bombay

A 22-year-old man was arrested last week for pretending to be a student and living illegally at IIT-Bombay for 14 days. Despite not being formally educated beyond his 12th grade, Bilal managed to enter and stay on the high-security campus without raising suspicion for nearly two weeks, NDTV reported.

The incident came to light on June 26 when a college staff member found Bilal Ahmad Teli sleeping on a sofa. When questioned, Bilal ran away without giving any answers. This made the staff suspicious, and they checked CCTV footage. It revealed that Bilal was not a student and had been roaming around the campus freely for the past few days.

Authorities filed a police complaint, and Bilal was arrested. He has been sent to judicial custody until July 7. During his time on the campus, Bilal allegedly slept in hostel lounges, attended lectures, and visited areas where free coffee was available. He introduced himself as a PhD student and even used fake documents to support his claims. Police also found that he attended a seminar on Artificial Intelligence during his stay.

During police questioning, Bilal admitted that he had done something similar last year as well, staying on the IIT-Bombay campus for about a month without getting caught.

The Mumbai Crime Branch is investigating the case. They found that Bilal had deleted a lot of data from his phone, which is now being recovered with the help of cyber experts. He had made several videos of the campus but had not shared them with anyone. Interestingly, officials also discovered that Bilal had created 21 different email IDs. When asked about this, he said they were linked to the blogs he was running as part of his goal to become a social media influencer and earn money online.

Bilal is currently working in a private company in Surat, Gujarat, where he earns Rs 1.25 lakh per month. He has a background in IT, having completed a six-month software development course and a one-year diploma in web designing after completing his 12th. His father runs a garment business.

According to the police, Bilal had travelled to Dubai earlier and visited Bahrain in 2024. Due to his suspicious behaviour and unusual activity on campus, intelligence agencies and anti-terror units are also questioning him to rule out any anti-national motives.