LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government started gathering information about teenager Saurabh Singh as the country came to terms with the fact that his claim of an award from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was a hoax.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary V.K. Mittal directed the administration of Ballia, from where Singh hails, to find out about the boy who had claimed to have topped the International Scientists Discovery examination. NASA denied on Feb. 23 conducting any such test for Singh. The NASA honor was supposed to have put Singh in the same league as President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and astronaut Kalpana Chawla. Media reports had said both had taken the exam but Rashtrapati Bhavan later clarified that Kalam never appeared for the ISD exam.