Gariaband (Chhattisgarh): Manish Bisi, a youngster from the Madagaon village in Chhattisgarh’s Gariaband district may have never thought that the purchase of a SIM Card would get him connected to his favourite cricketer Virat Kohli.
On June 28, Manish, son of farmer Gajendra Bisi bought the SIM Card from a mobile outlet in Deobhog, about eight km from his village. Soon after the connection got activated, he started receiving calls from people who claimed to be Kohli, A B de Villiers and Yash Dayal, all members of his favourite IPL team – Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB).
Manish discussed the matter with his friend Khemraj and the two started believing that the calls were part of some elaborate prank being played by friends. They decided to play along though.
They were stunned after downloading WhatsApp though. The profile picture that popped up was of RCB captain Rajat Patidar. They were still not fully convinced though and believed it was part of the prank being played on them.
They didn’t even believe it when someone called up on July 15, identified himself as Patidar, and said: “Brother, please return my SIM.”
Finally, the caller told them that he would send the police over to their village to sort out the matter. A police team arrived shortly afterwards and that is hen they realised that those who had been calling were the cricketers they claimed to be.
“Manish was actually getting calls from cricketers who were trying to get in touch with Rajat Patidar. They did not know that Patidar had stopped using the number and it had automatically deactivated due to inactivity after 90 days, as per telecom policy. The number was then reassigned to another customer, who happened to be Manish. Patidar informed the Madhya Pradesh Cyber Cell (Patidar plays for Madhya Pradesh in domestic cricket) that his number had been allotted to someone else and requested to have it back. The Madhya Pradesh Police got in touch with us,” Neha Sinha, DSP, Gariaband said.
Manish happily handed over the SIM Card after realising what had happened. “He may not have done so and there was nothing that anybody could have done about it. But he was actually happy to return the number to the captain of his favourite team. There was no legal issue or fault on anyone’s part. This was simply a result of standard telecom procedures,” Sinha added.
For Manish, Khemraj, and their families, meanwhile, the experience has been like “something out of a film”.
“I never imagined I would speak to Virat Kohli one day, and that too from our village. When A B de Villiers called, he spoke in English. We couldn’t understand a word, but we were so thrilled,” Khemraj said.
“When Manish used to get calls, he would hand over the phone to me. The callers who identified themselves as Virat Kohli and Yash Dayal asked us why we were using Patidar’s number. We explained to them we had bought a new SIM and this is our number,” he added.
“Even if it was all due to a mix-up, these conversations happened out of sheer luck. People just dream of seeing them from afar, but we got to speak to them,” Manish’s brother Deshbandhu said.
