The Mumbai Police Crime Branch on Friday arrested three directors of a sports club for allegedly cheating scores of young cricketers by posing as the official talent hunt partner for Sunrisers Hyderabad, an Indian Premier League cricket team.
According to Crime Branch officers, the accused, identified as Vijay Barhate (43), Jeevan Mukadam (28) and Dinesh More (26), were running RN Sports Club, which was the official sponsor for the Hyderabad team in the 2013 IPL tournament. From August 2013 to December 2014, the accused allegedly cheated at least 11 players into paying them ₹68.06 lakh in installments, promising them that their dreams of playing on a national level would soon be realised. Investigating officers said that apart from the 11 victims who have approached them so far, there are several others in Mumbai as well as in other cities, including Delhi, who have been similarly cheated by the accused. The police have found out that the accused had paid close to ₹1.50 crore to Sunrisers Hyderabad as part of the sponsorship deal.
Complaint by coach
Crime Branch officers said that around a month ago, they received a complaint from a Mumbai-based cricket coach who trains aspiring cricketers at Azad Maidan in south Mumbai, regarding the RN Sports Club. The Property Cell of the Crime Branch was instructed to conduct inquiries into the matter. A Crime Branch officer said, “While investigating the case, we found that the trio had approached the complainant and offered to get his students spots in Sunrisers for IPL matches, as well as in Ranji Trophy matches. They showed some documents with the Sunrisers Hyderabad letterhead, on which they had signed their sponsorship deal, and claimed to be official talent hunt partners for the team.”
A police officer said, “The accused would seek out aspiring cricketers and convince them using a Facebook page which they had set up in 2013, as well as showing them signed documents about [the relationship between] RN Sports Club and Sunrisers Hyderabad at the time. The Facebook page has pictures of Barhate with the team. We expect the number of victims and the amount of money fraudulently obtained by the accused to rise in the days to come. The Board of Control for Cricket in India has also received complaints about the Club.” They allegedly also took some of the players for ‘practice sessions’ in Hyderabad to convince their victims that they were genuine. sell their lie. Once money was paid, however, they would stop responding to the players’ calls.
“We conducted investigations into the movements of the three accused and got information on their whereabouts, the officer said.
“On Friday, three teams were sent to various locations. Barhate was picked up from Bhusawal, Mukadam from Pune and More from Thane, after which they were all placed under arrest.”
