Angul: The invitation letter allegedly from NASA praising the ‘Mavic Drone’ of Subhranshu Nayak, a Class IX student of Saraswati Sishu Vidya Mandir at Gandhi Marg in Angul town, and inviting him to the United States of America has come out as a fake one.
Informing about the genuineness of the invitation letter the school received, Angul superintendent of police Jagmohan Meena Sunday said at a press meet here that the letter is indeed fake. A minor did play this prank on Subhranshu, using the name of NASA, he informed.
Given some spelling mistakes in the letter, the cyber cell from the very beginning suspected the letter, received from an Indian’s Gmail account, to be a fake one and launched a probe into it. A case was registered (case no-1000/19) by Angul Police after it was confirmed that the letter was not a genuine one, he further informed.
Informing about the next course of action, Meena said the minor who had sent the letter to the School and who had created the fake ID as ‘nasaaeronautics@gmail.com’ have been identified. That apart, the source from where the calls using phone number +1(202)358-0000 were coming, with the caller introducing himself as from NASA has also been tracked.
Angul Police is going to submit its report to Juvenile Justice Board and it is the Board’s duty to study the report and decide the next course of action.
However, Meena said no information about the minor can be shared with the media. He clarified it that NASA has not sent any letter to Subhranshu.
Meanwhile, the school has postponed an important meeting on this topic. School managing committee, secretary Bijay Modi said the pranksters motive was not to tarnish the reputation of the school but to cause distress to Subhranshu. “Whoever has done this mischief should be found out and punished exemplarily to send out a message to all such wrongdoers,” he added.
This incident has left Subhranshu, his family members, school authorities, local citizens disheartened. Despite repeated attempts, Subhranshu could not be contacted for his comment.
Notably, Subhranshu, son of Laxman Nayak of Hulurisingha village in Angul district, had posted about his ‘Mavic Drone’ on NASA website. He had received a letter allegedly from NASA on his school Gmail address May 10 wherein his project was appreciated and he was invited to America.
PNN
