Former Indian cricketer Sandeep Patil stumped by fake Facebook profile

Sandeep Patil filed an FIR at Dadar's Shivaji Park police station on Monday. Pic/ Suresh Karkera

Former India batsman and chairman of selectors, Sandeep Patil on Monday filed a police complaint against an unknown person for creating his fake Facebook profile. This comes a week after the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) last week arrested a 19-year-old Assam resident for threatening to kill members of the Indian national cricket team.

Sandeep Patil told mid-day that he does not use social media. "I don't have Facebook, Twitter or other social media accounts. One of my friends called me recently to ask why I was asking for the contact numbers of my cricket colleagues over social media. That's when I realised that someone was misusing my name," Patil said.

The cricketer was at the Shivaji Park Gymkhana on August 19 when his friend informed him that someone had opened a Facebook account using his name and picture and that he was also asking for contact numbers of BCCI members and several famous personalities through Facebook messenger.

A screen grab of the fake Facebook profile created by the accused

Patil immediately informed the BCCI and they suggested filing a police complaint. On August 25, another former cricketer - Anand Yalvigi - too told Patil about this fake Facebook profile.

"I received a friend request from this Facebook account and found 13 people in the mutual friends list. As soon as I accepted the request, this person began chatting with me and asked me BCCI's acting secretary Amitabh Choudhary's contact. He then asked me the number of Dina ma'am (female veteran cricketer Diana Edulji)," said Yalvigi.

"He also asked for my number which I gave but the way he was chatting with me was weird. I found it suspicious and immediately contacted Patil who confirmed it wasn't him so I immediately blocked the account," he added.

The accused also contacted cricket commentator Gautam Bhimani and requested him to give former cricketer Sunil Gavaskar's contact number. He was desperately insisting on securing the number, which alerted the commentator.

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Former cricketer Sandeep Patil filed an FIR at Shivaji Park police station on Monday. Pic/ Suresh Karkera

ATS, police probing matter

ATS, in their investigation, have also found that Das had sent several e-mails to cricket boards of other nations with the same threatening content.

An officer from Shivaji Park police station told mid-day that an FIR against an unknown person has been registered under section 66 (C) (fraudulently using another person's identity) of Information Technology Act and investigations are underway.

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