Conman Mrinank Singh was taken into police custody while he attempted to escape India via the Delhi International Airport. The former cricketer was wanted by the police after he repeatedly duped luxury hotels and even individuals while posing as a prominent cricketer. Among those who fell victim to Singh's duplicity was India national cricket team star Rishabh Pant, who lost 1.6 crore INR to the conman in a previous scam. (IND Vs RSA Scorecard | Cricket News)
Speaking to the media, DCP Ravikant Kumar presented a statement concerning Singh's detention. He also revealed that the 25-year-old had previously played for the Haryana youth team and claimed to have also represented Mumbai Indians.
“In July 2022, he went to the Taj Palace and told them he was a celebrated cricketer and had played in the IPL. He stayed there for almost a week and his bill was around Rs 5.6 lakh. He left the hotel saying his sponsor, Adidas, would foot the bill. However, the bank account numbers and card details provided by him turned out to be fake,” said Kumar (Indian Express).
“On Monday, while he was trying to catch a flight to Hong Kong, immigration officials detained him and handed him to us."
Another officer detailed Singh's modus operandi while working on his con jobs, which included dressing up as a police officer from Karnataka apart from his successful cricket bait.
“At a few hotels, he would pose as a senior police officer from Karnataka while at others, he would say he’s a successful cricketer. He was very active on social media and would post selfies with women to show he was famous and had multiple fans,” said another police officer (Indian Express).
Singh duped Pant in 2022, claiming to have been in the business of buying and selling luxury goods. Pant presented his 1.6 crore INR worth watch collection to Singh, trusting the individual, who, in turn, returned Pant a cheque of the same value, albeit one that was deemed redundant.
