Cricket News

‘Pant bhai se koi nahi bach sakta’- Fans react as cricketer-turned-conman who duped Rishabh Pant of 1.6 Cr gets arrested

Mrinank Singh, a 25-year old former cricketer-turned-conman who duped Rishabh Pant of 1.6 Cr gets caught by police

Dec 30, 2023 5:33 pm

Mrinank Singh, a 25-year-old former Haryana cricketer found himself in the clutches of the law. Hailing from Faridabad in Haryana, Singh’s journey began on the cricket field, representing the state’s Under-19 cricket team. However, his obsession with a lavish lifestyle turned him from an aspiring cricketer to a con man.

Singh made up fake identities, like a cricket player and a high-ranking officer, to fool people and get away with their money. He posed as a senior IPS officer to leverage the authority to deceive five-star establishments and leave the premises without paying off his bills.

Mrinank Singh identified himself as an IPL player and other fabricated identities to dupe several women in lieu of a luxurious life. The Chanakyapuri police station in Delhi received a complaint from a five-star hotel, setting off a chain of legal confrontations against Singh.

Singh’s stay at a Central Delhi five-star hotel from July 22-29, 2022, culminated in a ₹5,53,362 bill left unpaid, leading to a case under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code. When the police sought Singh for questioning, he mysteriously vanished, convincing acquaintances that he had settled in Dubai, leading to the issuance of a non-bailable warrant.

Attempting to escape to Hong Kong, Singh’s plans were thwarted as he was apprehended at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. Even in detention, Singh tried to manipulate the situation by identifying himself as a senior IPS officer to deceive the police.

The Rishabh Pant Connection

Mrinank Singh was extremely audacious as he duped ace Indian cricketer Rishabh Pant of ₹1.6 crore in 2021, exploiting their connection from a zonal cricket academy. Rishabh Pant’s trust in Singh proved costly as the conman promised to procure expensive watches at reasonable rates which led Pant to entrust him with jewellery and other high-end items to sell them at good prices and procure watches from them but were eventually conned him.

It was all unfolded to Pant when Mrinak handed over a cheque to Pant which eventually bounced. Interestingly, even after all this Pant did not file an FIR against Mrinank Singh. However, the arrest of this con man created a social media meltdown among fans. Here are some of the tweets from the social media platform X: