Bengaluru: The head of commercial partnerships for former cricket captain MS Dhoni has lodged a complaint with HSR Layout police stating that he and his friend were duped by a miscreant who posed as an IAS officer designated as private secretary to Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Swaminathan Sankar (whose LinkedIn profile describes him as part of Dhoni’s Midas Deals) said his friend was defrauded of over Rs 6.3 lakh by the accused, who promised to arrange for a special darshan of Lord Balaji (Venkateshwara Swamy) at Tirumala in Tirupati.
Police registered cases against the accused — Nakul, Sandeep and Nageshwara Rao.
The drama, according to Sankar’s complaint, unfolded on Oct 26 last year when he received a phone call from a person who impersonated ‘IAS officer SS Nakul’, PS to Sitharaman. The imposter said a judge’s son, identified as Sandeep, wanted to meet Dhoni. Sandeep and another person met the cricketer at a hotel in Kolkata on Oct 29.
Sankar alleged that Sandeep called him on Nov 30 and told him special darshan for 12 people had been arranged. “Since I was not in the country, he suggested that I nominate someone known to me for the darshan,” Sankar stated, adding that he suggested the name of a friend Vineeth Chandrashekhar. On Dec 20, a person named Nageshwar Rao called stating he was the FM’s personal assistant and sought donations for the temple. “Vineeth donated over Rs 3.3 lakh to the bank account mentioned by Rao. Promising to arrange special darshan, Rao took an additional Rs 3 lakh from us, but nothing happened,” Sankar’s complaint read.
