Fake IPL trial kingpin's 'career' from coaching kids to fleecing them

It was a bouncer on his right eye during his under19 days that cut short the cricketing career of Aditya Bhandari 34 the alleged kingpin of the fake IPL trial camp that midday busted and reported about on October 26 Through an academy in Amritsar Bhandari had stayed connected to the game And sensing the lure of the IPL in youngsters he then concocted his plan allegedly making false promises to young cricketers of getting them a place in Kings XI Punjab teamAditya Bhandari the alleged kingpin of the fake IPL trialTwo teams of the Mumbai Police successfully nabbed Bhandari from one of his two homes in Amritsar where he was hiding on the eve of his 34th birthday and brought him to the Marine Drive police station on Wednesday He was produced in a local court which sent him to police custody till November 6Also ReadFake IPL Kings XI Punjab trial kingpin arrested from AmritsarBhandari had prepared the fake documents and logos bearing Kings XI Punjabs name to spread them on social media He was booked under IPC sections 465 forgery 467 forgery of valuable security will etc 468 forgery for purpose of cheating 471using forged document as genuine 420 cheating and 34 common intentionThe endHis interrogation revealed how his cricketing career came to an end He was a very good cricketer an allrounder righthanded batsman and offbreak bowler He was in the Punjab Under19 team in 200304 But during a match he was hit by a bouncer over his right eye which damaged his vision After that his performance dipped and he was removed from the squad said an officerThat came as a huge shock to him as he knew nothing other than cricket So he started training kids around his residence Later he launched Arnav Cricket Academy named after his son on a plot given to him by St Sai Secondary School in Indira Nagar Amritsar after he promised to train their students at 50 percent discountAlso ReadMidDay Exposes Fake IPL Talent Scouts Fleecing Budding Cricketers In MumbaiA taste of moneyFor the Kings Cup held in 2015 Bhandaris Arnav Cricket Academy was given the charge of conducting trials in Punjab by the company that Kings XI Punjab had hired for the panIndia trials There wasnt another edition of this tournament the next year 2016 but remembering the money earned the previous year Bhandari decided to hold trials for a fake Kings Cup in 2017 an officer said adding that this was without any valid permission or authority from the IPL franchise He replicated the Kings Cup model to arrange camps all over the country telling his men to collect the moneyTracing the kingpinAfter arresting Harvinder Singh Ravindra Gupta and Satendra Singh at Oval Maidan on October 25 the police had launched a hunt for Bhandari We went to Amritsar and tried to gather information from the school where he was coaching students One student gave us some information after which we went to Chandigarh Meanwhile our other team was working on information from informers and technical data said an officer from Marine Drive police station From Chandigarh another student told us that he was in Amritsar We went there and nabbed him