Caught! ‘Cricketer’ who donned many hats

NEW DELHI: A cricketer of an IPL team, a Ranji player, ADGP Karnataka — 25-year-old Mrinank Singh “played” multiple roles allegedly to dupe people of cash and luxury items. He even allegedly duped well-known cricketer Rishabh Pant of more than a crore in May last year.
Now in the custody of Delhi Police, Singh was arrested for allegedly duping Taj Hotel after he did not clear a bill of around Rs 5.5 lakh for his stay from July 22 to 29, 2022. Singh was earlier arrested by the Mumbai and Panchkula police for duping people.
According to Delhi Police, “A complaint from the director of security, Taj Palace Hotel was received at the Chanakyapuri police station, alleging that Singh had presented himself as a cricketer and stayed at the hotel, but left without settling the bills of Rs 5,53,362.” He had told the hotel management that his company, “a famous sportswear brand”, would make the payment and later shared a transaction number claiming to have made an online transaction of Rs 2 lakh, which was found to be dubious, police added.
When the hotel again contacted Singh and his manager, Gagan Singh, it was told that the cricketer’s driver would soon be sent with cash, but no one turned up. Singh was then contacted several times, but every time, he had made false promises and provided wrong information. A case of cheating was subsequently registered.
Police had sent notices to Singh’s house, but he was not present. “His mobile phone remained switched off and most of his communications were on social media platforms. His acquaintances were made to believe that he had settled in Dubai. A non-bailable warrant was then issued against him and a lookout circular was issued,” said Ravikant Kumar, additional deputy commissioner of police, New Delhi.
On December 25, he was arrested from the IGI Airport while trying to board a flight to Hong Kong. Even then he tried to deceive investigating officials by posing as a senior IPS officer.
A BCom graduate from a North Campus college, Singh had done his MBA from Rajasthan. He had three previous criminal cases registered against him in Juhu, Karnal and Mohali.