The man in question was capable of convincing a huge majority of people that he was an IPL star
The Indian Premier League (IPL) since 2008 has given birth to great stories – from underdogs lifting trophies to youngsters turning heroes overnight and even the downfall of legends.
Off the field, the tournament has witnessed controversies, starting from boycotts in certain states to incendiaries going off near stadiums and even a ban on two teams. Most of these controversies and scandals have remained in the minds of IPL fans.
However, they have forgotten a "Catch Me If You Can" sort of plot by an ex-cricketer who turned into a conman and fooled a huge majority of people.
The man in question is Mrinank Singh, whose illegal activities went viral in 2023 after the Taj Palace filed a police case.
Singh's life as a conman was backtracked after he posed as an IPL player and lived in the Taj Palace but did not pay a bill of nearly INR 6,00,000. When he failed to make the payment, the hotel filed a complaint against him.
The police tried to locate Singh but could not. Finally, he was caught at the IGI airport in Delhi when he was trying to flee the country to Hong Kong. Even after he was caught, he tried to dupe the airport officials by stating that his name was Ashok Kumar, the ADGP of Karnataka.
During police interrogation, he plotted a new story stating that his father was also an international cricketer who played in the 1980s and was a manager of Air India.
After several hours of grilling sessions, Singh finally confessed that he posed as an IPL player and duped several hotels, women, cab drivers, bars, restaurants, etc., to live an extravagant life. In some places, he even claimed to be a Mumbai Indians player.
Mrinank Singh even duped Indian cricketer Rishabh Pant on the pretext of starting a business. When Singh was unable to return the money to Pant, the Roorkee-based wicketkeeper sent a legal notice to Singh. Pant's lawyer, Eklavya Dwivedi, revealed this incident during an exclusive interview with Sports Tak.
While interrogating Singh, police also found several "highly objectionable" photos of individuals in Singh's phone. It became clear that Singh posed as an IPL star and duped hundreds of people and firms to fuel his extravagant lifestyle, which included living in five-star hotels and going on vacation with multiple women.
Mrinank Singh also claimed to be a Ranji player for Haryana. However, when we searched online, we could not find a trace of his Ranji whereabouts. What we came across was strange—a profile named Mrinank Singh is active on ESPN Cricinfo's website but shows no statistics.
Why? We don't know the answer, but Singh definitely managed to pull off a movie-like conman tale—impressive but not to be idolised or followed.
