New Delhi: A 25-year-old former ‘cricketer’ was arrested for allegedly duping multiple luxury hotel owners and managers across India by posing as a senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, news agency PTI reported. The accused, identified as Mrinank Singh, is a resident of Haryana’s Faridabad. He represented the state’s cricket team at the under-19 level. Singh also cheated a five-star hotel in Delhi of more than Rs 5 lakh, police said.
According to police, Singh would come up with different modus operandi and pose as a senior IPS officer to cheat the five-star hotels and resorts. He would also pose as a player for an IPL franchise. In 2021-22, he also duped cricketer Rishabh Pant of Rs 1.6 crore, The Indian Express quoted police as saying.
Police received a complaint on August 22, 2022, at Chanakyapuri from a five-star hotel in central Delhi. As per the complaint, Singh posed as a cricketer and stayed in the hotel from July 22-29. He then left the hotel without settling the bill amounting to Rs 5.53 lakh and said the payment will be done by his sponsor, PTI reported.
After the hotel shared their banking details with him, Singh gave a transaction ID showing payment of Rs 2 lakh was made. However, the hotel did not find the transaction on their system, police added.
When contacted, Singh said he would send his driver with the money. However, no one showed up, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi) Ravikant Kumar told the news agency. The hotel tried to contact him several times but every time he provided wrong information.
A case under Section 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) was registered at Chanakyapuri police station, PTI reported.
During probe, a notice was sent to his address but he was not present at his house. His mobile phones also remained switched off, police said. He was finally arrested at IGI Airport while trying to fly to Hong Kong on Monday, PTI reported.
“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,” The Indian Express quoted a police officer as saying.
He has been taken in police custody for two days. Singh was also found to have been involved in three cases of cheating in Mumbai, Haryana and Punjab, police added, as per PTI.
