New Delhi: Cars, watches, cricket — Mrinank Singh’s flashy, verified Instagram account has more than 42,000 followers and there’s nothing suspicious about it. His bio says he’s a sportsperson, and there’s an email address to reach out to him for business queries, as you find with nearly every social media influencer nowadays.
It’s true that he’s a sportsperson — he played for Haryana as part of its U-19 cricket team and claimed to have played in the 2021 Ranji Trophy. Moreover, according to police sources, he claimed he was on a contract with the Mumbai Indians for four years (2014-2018) after being selected in an auction.
But this 25-year-old also has at least four cases lodged against him and was arrested by the Delhi Police Monday after being detained at Indira Gandhi International Airport for allegedly duping the Taj Palace Hotel of Rs 5,53,000.
This isn’t Singh’s first brush with the police. He was arrested for allegedly duping a Jalandhar-based businessman of Rs 5.75 lakh in August 2023, but later got bail.
Before this, when he was being interrogated in a case of cheating a Mumbai businessman in May 2022, he allegedly revealed that he had duped cricketer Rishabh Pant — who he knew from a zonal cricket academy — of Rs 1.63 crore in 2021. He had allegedly offered to procure expensive watches for Pant at “reasonable rates”, and also took some jewellery and other luxury items belonging to the wicket-keeper batter that he said he would sell for high prices. Sources said the cheques Singh gave Pant for this ended up bouncing due to insufficient balance in the former’s account. Singh was able to secure bail in the case of the Mumbai businessman, while there was no FIR in the Pant case.
In his interactions with cricketers, other people and even investigators, Singh claimed that his father was an ace cricketer who captained the Haryana cricket team, which sources said hasn’t been verified.
“We have checked it but nothing suggesting his claim has been found yet,” a source said.
Singh’s many hats
Police sources said that while sometimes the stardom of a cricketer worked for Singh, at other times he often posed as Karnataka Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) Alok Kumar, or as a brand ambassador for international brands like Adidas, among others.
For instance, when Singh was detained at the airport on Monday by immigration officers as there was a look out circular in his name, he allegedly attempted to influence the officers.
“He made phone calls to senior police officers posing as IPS Alok Kumar, ADGP, Karnataka and sought assistance in helping his son Mrinank Singh, who had been illegally detained at IGI Airport,” another source said.
At Delhi’s Taj Hotel, he allegedly told the staff that he was a player with the Mumbai Indians.
“He stayed from 22 July to 29 July and left the hotel without clearing the bills. When he was asked for payment, he said that Adidas would be making the payment and showed that he had made a payment of Rs 2,00,000. However no such payment was made by him. In spite of repeated reminders, he remained evasive,” said Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Ravi Kant.
After the FIR was lodged, when the police contacted his family, the investigating team was informed that the family had cut ties with Singh.
“He would keep changing his locations and also only use social media apps for calls. He even made his acquaintances believe that he is not in India and is now settled in Dubai,” Kant said.
According to the police, even during interrogation after his arrest, Singh tried to mislead them by claiming that his father, Ashok Kumar Singh, had played for the Indian cricket team in the 1980s and 1990s as an all-rounder, was currently working as a manager for Air India, and was posted at IGI Airport.
“During interrogation, Singh revealed that he has duped multiple luxury resorts and hotels of lakhs of rupees by posing as ADGP Karnataka, and on several occasions used his stardom as an IPL cricketer to influence them and stay for multiple days and leave without clearing their dues on a false promise of paying them later,” the second source said.
Police said that analysis of his phone and prima facie investigation has suggested that Singh has multiple victims.
“His victims include hotels, bars, restaurants, young girls, cab drivers, small eating outlets among others. Initial analysis of his mobile phone has also revealed his acquaintance with young female models, and it contains multiple videos and photographs, some of them highly objectionable,” the second source said.
Also read: ‘Bulletproof car, PMO visiting card, US PhD’: How Gujarat ‘conman’ duped J&K officials for 4 months