22-Year-Old Arrested for Unauthorized Stay at IIT-B, Fascinated by AI and Robotics

MUMBAI: Bilal Teli, 22, was arrested for an unauthorized 19-day stay at the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) between May and June. During his stay, Teli attended lectures on artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, pretending to be a PhD student. He was earning ₹1.25 lakh monthly from a private firm in Surat and aspired to become a social media influencer.

Teli’s fascination with AI and robotics drew him to IIT-B, where he managed to blend in by impersonating a PhD student. He slept on a sofa in the common room and even managed to get free coffee. His unauthorized presence was first noticed on June 4 when Shilpa Kotikal from the institute’s Credit Department raised an alarm. When she asked him to produce his identity card, he disappeared.

Kotikal checked the CCTV footage and shared images of Teli with campus security, but they failed to locate him at the time. He left the campus on June 7 and returned on June 10, attending lectures for a week. He was eventually nabbed by campus security on June 17 and handed over to the Powai police.

Interrogations revealed that Teli had arrived at the IIT-B campus on May 27, ostensibly to attend a day-long study programme, but stayed on. The Powai police registered a First Information Report (FIR) on June 19, and Teli was formally arrested on June 24 on charges of trespassing. The case was transferred to the Crime Intelligence Unit (CIU) of the Mumbai crime branch, and a section of forgery was added to the case.

Teli had created 21 email accounts with names of cities such as Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Hyderabad, and others, to upload videos of content from those cities as he wanted to make more money as a social media influencer. At this stage, after scrutinizing those emails and other details, nothing appears to be suspicious.

The Telis, Bilal’s parents, older brother, sister, and grandmother, live in Mangaluru. The family is originally from Surat and made the shift around 30 years ago. His father runs a garment shop in Mangaluru, while other relatives live in Surat. Some of his distant relatives live in Pakistan, but investigation till now has not revealed that he had communicated with or sent any pictures and videos to anyone, including his relatives, in Pakistan.

Teli has been interrogated by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). He had visited the UAE thrice and last December traveled to Bahrain for official work from his company. Teli’s father arrived in Mumbai and stayed in a hotel for a few days. He is currently in police custody till July 7 for further investigation.

Teli had made calls to people, whose identities police have yet to ascertain, using digital apps. The police are also trying to extract more data from his laptop and mobile phone to find out if he was in touch with anyone or if he was staying on campus illegally under anyone’s instructions.