A 19-year-old boy, who duped several people in Gandhinagar in Gujarat by posing as a senior scientist of the Indian Space Research Organisation and a member of the 'Chandrayan' mission, has been arrested.

Harshal Parikh used to tell people that he was a member of ISRO's Moon mission and counted President A P J Abdul Kalam among his friends, a senior police official said.

Parikh was arrested

on Sunday and several fake certificates were seized from him, the officer said.

The boy also used with his false claims to lure a teenaged girl into marrying him.

However, the girl soon found out the truth and informed her parents and police.

Parikh, meanwhile, has filed a writ petition in the Gujarat high court alleging that police are harassing him and trying
to extract information about the Moon mission.