For over a month, 20-year-old Sarvesh Sharma lived under the impression that he was inching close to his dreams with each passing day. He ideated a startup, got it registered; started the process to obtain a PAN card, and even opened a joint bank account with his mother — thinking he secured a Rs 3.5-crore grant from the Ministry of Defence to develop an indigenous drone.Fast forward to October 27, the Computer Engineering student from Government Polytechnic College finally realised he was being sold a dream that didn’t exist. A day later, it came to light that Sarvesh fell from the 3rd floor of the hostel building. He is admitted to PGIMER, Chandigarh, where he is undergoing surgery for multiple fractures in his jaws and legs.Sources said that Sarvesh first started exploring the iDEX website in August and applied under its individual category. He reportedly received the first communication on September 21, followed by a purported grant sanction letter asking him to complete the necessary documentation within 20 days.In September, he also registered his startup, Rudra Edge, in Hamirpur. He reportedly told faculty members that the proposed grant would be released in phases in the name of his startup and also started exploring the possibility of hiring fellow students.On October 15, the institute received communications, including an email from the National Informatics Centre, seeking the student’s contact details.Sources in the college faculty said that on October 27, Sarvesh wrote back on the mail id, from where he has been receiving the communications, expressing apprehension that he might have been cheated.However, a day after a cyber fraud FIR was registered, Sarvesh’s mother Kalpana blamed the institute management for not handling the matter with sensitivity.Story continues below this adKalpana questioned why the principal approached the media first and announced that a project had been allotted to Sarvesh without even informing the family. “The management should have first taken the family into confidence. But instead, they informed the media and Sarvesh was even felicitated by the governor. Sarvesh was happy, he told us about his drone project and also opened a bank account with me on advise of his project coordinator. But the publicity created a lot of anxiety in him,” she said, adding that the family is now facing one difficulty after another.His uncle Vijay Kumar added that Sarvesh was always a bright student and received a lot of awards. “He was was even meeting a part of his educational expenses through his own earnings. He registered the startup and opened the bank account with assistance and knowledge of the college management,” he said.Vijay also questioned why a day after putting out a message on X, the official website of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) was showing an ‘under maintenance’ message.When asked, principal Chandersekhar said that the student didn’t share all details with the institute management. “Sarvesh showed us a couple of screenshots of his communication with purported representatives of iDEX and said that he was told not to share further details. Some screenshots carried the name and signature of one Vivek, whose name was also listed on the Defence Innovation Organisation (DIO) website. However, the institute could not independently establish the authenticity of the person communicating with the student,” Chandersekhar said, adding that over the past one month, Sarvesh had become very quite.Story continues below this adMeanwhile, Hamirpur SSP Balbir Singh said the matter was under investigation. “We are collecting relevant documents from the college institute. The student is undergoing treatment, and we will communicate with him at an appropriate time,” he said.An official member of iDEX in Delhi told The Indian Express that their website is down for the past couple of days due to the multiple reasons including complaints of hacking. “It will be restored within a few days. We have already cleared this on our X handle that no such grant was released to anyone. There is no project with iDEX wherein we released Rs 3.5 crore grant. Two proponents including DISC (Defense India Start-up Challenge) and iDEX Open Challenge have the provision of Rs 1.5Cr grant and one ADITI (Acing Development of Innovative Technologies with iDEX) proponent has the provision of grant of Rs 25 crore.”