Fake cop arrested for duping cricketer Rishabh Pant, travel agent, businessman

The conman duped Rishabh Pant, a Jalandhar-based travel agent and a businessman from Mumbai by posing as an ADGP.

Chandigarh:An imposter posing as additional director general of police (ADGP) duped cricketer Rishabh Pant of Rs 1.5 crore and a Jalandhar-based travel agent of Rs 5.76 lakh, police said. The man was arrested along with his associate from Panchkula.

The accused, identified as Mriank Singh is allegedly a former cricketer from Haryana. He duped many people at different places by posing as ADGP Alok Kumar. Mriank and his aide, Raghav Goyal, who hails from Sector-17 in Faridabad, are currently on a two-day police remand in Mohali's Phase-8 police station.

In January 2021, Mriank met Pant at the Zonal Cricket Academy camp and claimed that he was into a business of luxury watches and other items. He reportedly asked Pant to join him in the business with him. Pant is learnt to have given some luxury watches and bags to Mriank for resale. In return, the accused gave him a cheque of Rs 1.5 crore but, it later bounced.

In a recent case, a travel agent from Jalandhar alleged that he booked domestic air tickets and hotel rooms for Mriank. Later, when he met the accused in Mohali he borrowed another Rs 50,000 from him in cash. Mriank had promised to return the entire money within 15 days but absconded after that. The travel agent lodged a police complaint following which, the matter came to light.

During investigation it was revealed that the accused had earlier cheated Pant and another businessman from Mumbai in the same way. The accused came in contact with the businessman on social media and duped him of around Rs 6 lakh. When the Mumbai-based businessman asked for his money, the accused stopped taking his calls.

Mohali police has not revealed the businessman's name.