An Indian-origin woman has been arrested at the University of Columbia for falsely pretending to be a student.

Birva Patel, a 26-year old pretended to be a student at the university for nine whole months without alarming the university authorities.

The student newspaper, Columbia Spectator earlier reported that the woman pretending to be one Rhea Sen had been posing as a junior in the campus for at least two weeks. But, after the report was published, the students are claiming to have seen her as early as in December 2011.

According to the report, Patel has been arrested thrice in the last week, for criminal trespass Thursday and Saturday as per the court documents and again Monday night, according to witnesses.

During her stay in the campus she mainly came off as a socially awkward student who was trying hard to make friends. She seemed to attend all orientation events and even toured the city in bus. Students say that her behavior was very unusual.

One of the comments on the Columbia Spectator reads:

"She's been around for a while - she used to bug me and my friend at UNI at like 2 am during the spring and said she went to CU but didn't know anything about the school. She kept pressing us for information that anybody who actually went here would know. She just seemed creepy, and would kind of lurk around us and follow us out."

Only in August did her behavior raise red flags among the leaders of International Student Orientation Program who reported her to authorities.

Patel told the ISOP leader and a senior, Rebecca Smith that she was registered for the Columbia Outdoor Orientation Program but had missed the program's departure. Although she lived in Philadelphia, she said, she was born in India.

She gave the leaders fake University Network ID and did not have a personal ID. The students say she lied about where she stayed and appeared to have been homeless.

When students came across her Thursday, they alerted Public Safety and she was taken into custody.

Whereabouts of her family, if any, is still unknown.