MUMBAI, Aug. 25 -- The disappearance of a 19-year-old student from the Mumbai-Howrah Shalimar Express has set off a search operation by the Government Railway Police (GRP) in West Bengal and Jharkhand, officials said on Sunday. The student, Arjun Patil, was travelling with his parents to Kharagpur on August 20. He had told them he had secured admission to the mechanical engineering programme at IIT Kharagpur. Hours before the train was to reach Kharagpur the next day, Arjun went missing after telling his parents he was stepping out to use the toilet. His father, Rabindranath Patil, a schoolteacher from Jalgaon district, lodged a complaint with the Kharagpur GRP alleging his son had been kidnapped. But the investigation has revealed a more complicated story. "Arjun had lied to his parents. He had not cleared the IIT admission process, which ended last month. He showed them a fake email claiming selection," said a GRP officer. Arjun, who had scored 97% in his Class 10 board exams, had been sent to Kota, Rajasthan, for IIT-JEE preparation. He appeared for the test this year but did not make the cut. Officials said he had been studying at a private institute in Kota alongside school, but kept up the pretence of success at home. The GRP has circulated Arjun's photographs across Chakulia in Jharkhand and Jhargram in Bengal-the last two halts of the train before Kharagpur-as well as in nearby towns like Ghatsila and Galudi. "There was no report of an accident, runover or unnatural death in Jhargram on August 21. But so far, there is no trace of Arjun," said Samaresh Jana, inspector-in-charge of Jhargram GRP. Searches in and around Chakulia in East Singhbhum district have also drawn a blank. Members of Arjun's extended family rushed to Kharagpur after his disappearance. His uncle Umakant Patil told police that the family had pinned high hopes on the teenager's academic future....