Indian wicket keeper batsman Rishabh Pant who has been captaining Delhi Capitals side in Indian Premiere League, got cheated Rs. 1.63 crore by Haryana based cricketer named Mrinank Singh. In the pretext of getting him expensive watches, Mrinank duped the money and cheated the 24 year old, according to reports. Pant’s lawyer Eklavya Dwivedi explained the series of events to the media about how cricketer lost his money to the conster.

Mrinank who is currently under arrest for cheating another businessman, lured Pant in by claiming that he had started a business of buying and selling luxury watches, bags, jewellery, mobile phone and other luxury items and could procure them at huge discounts, according to reports.

 

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Filing a case alongside his manager Puneet Sopanki, Rishabh Pant claimed that he was cheated of Rs. 1.63 crore last in February through a bounced cheque. In the complaint, Pant said that the conman produced false references of several cricketers to deceive him. Mrinank also have told Pant that he could even resell his luxury items like watches, jewellery and other items for a handsome price.

According to Zee News, Pant wanted to sell his Franck Muller Vanguard Yachting Series watch worth Rs. 36.25 lakh and Richard Mille watch worth Rs. 62.60 lakh and handed both the items to Mrinank. Moreover, Pant reportedly paid more than Rs. 2 crore to buy various luxury goods.

However, the accused failed to obtain the items and the deal was cancelled after few months. Both the parties arrived at a mutual oral settlement for Rs. 1.63 crore and Mrinank gave Pant a cheque for the said amount. However, the cheque bounced due to insufficient fund in the bank.

 

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“This is basically a case under negotiable instruments act where the cheque issued by the accused Mr. Mrinank Singh has been dishonoured on account of insufficient funds. To take the story a little back, how these two met, how it actually transpired ans why this cheque was issued was sometime in 2020 or 2021. Mr. Mrinank Singh who was known to by client Rishabh Pant through their cricketing commonalities, met somewhere in the zonal cricket academy camp” said Pant’s lawyer Dwivedi.

“So, in 2021, Mr. Mrinank Singh falsely misrepresented to my client that he has just started a new business dealing luxury items and he could procure same items for it at a very reasonable cost. Therefore, on this proposal, he transferred a sizeable amount to Mr. Mrinank and also parted with certain luxurious items, jewellery etc which were also for relatively high amounts, anticipating that the accused Mrinank Singh would be able to resell the same and give him huge profits for it” The lawyer further said.

After a while, when he was not able to obtain those articles, we gave him a legal notice and a mutual settlement was arrived at Rs. 1.63 crore for which Mr. Mrinank Singh issues us a cheque. Now, once we presented the cheque before the bank authorities, we got a return memo saying that there has been a dishonourment of the cheque and it has bounced because of insufficient funds” He further said and added that the total amount amounts to somewhere between Rs. 1.8 crore to 1.9 crore including the interest.

Dwivedi concluded saying “He was not present in the last listing of our case before the magistrate. So, the magistrate has issued directors to the SHO over there to connect him virtually at the next date of hearing, which is on July 19. He will be present that day and his statement will be recorded. We have also filed an application under section 143 A for interim compensation. That will also be taken up and arguments will be heard on that”