LUCKNOW: Those who interacted with him were thoroughly impressed. He seemed like a promising corporate client at first. It took five days for seasoned employees of starred hotel to realise the suave south Indian, who spoke only in English had entered the property without money.Dealing with an unusual kind of complaint, the city police sent the 35-year-old man from Kerala to prison for duping management of Clarks Awadh hostel of Rs 46,994. The culprit Pradeep Balakrishnan had booked a hotel room over the phone on January 12 and arrived the next day.Claiming to be an NHAI employee, Pradeep presented his Aadhaar card while booking the room agreeing to pay Rs 7200, the daily tariff. “He said he had come to UP for official assignment and needs to inspect projects undergoing in Bareli – Shahjahanpur section. He was smartly dressed and was sporting an impressive leather jacket. There was no reason not to believe him,” said general manager of the hotel Pramod Chaturvedi, who is decades old in hospitality industry but could not sense anything fishy.Pradeep enjoyed the hotel hospitality for next five days and kept ordering for food items. Along with every meal, he enjoyed beer and a particular brand of cigarettes. He also left the hotel on two to three occasions for official work and left his keys at the hotel desk. Travelling light, hotel staffers thought Pradeep was one of the usual corporate executives.However, on January 17 it was the first time they discovered Pradeep was not among the usual clients. He furnished a debit card when asked to settle the bill but it was of no help as payment was being declined. Pradeep asked staffers to wait for another day and said his employer would transfer the amount in his account to pay off for his stay.He enjoyed the hotel’s hospitality for another day. When the same scenario occurred the next day, the front desk manager Shobhit Govil informed Hazratganj police about the man. While running a background check, it was found that Pradeep had been thrown out of another prime hotel located in Viraj Khand some days back.Police got in touch with senior employees of NHAI. “The national highway authority said no such man worked for them,” revealed sub-inspector Vinay Sharma who worked on the case. Sitting in the hotel lobby calmly, Pradeep provided contact numbers of his close family members. But they also denied to make payments. “His wife died some years back and he remained disturbed since then,” said Sharma who found it hard to communicate with Pradeep. An FIR against Pradeep was registered under IPC sections 406 and 420 on January 18 at Hazratganj police station and he was sent to prison subsequently. Police said Pradeep was from Ernakulam district.