Virat Kohli asked, “Why are you…?” — Chhattisgarh Villager on Rajat Patidar SIM Mix-Up
A young Man in Chhattisgarh, was left stunned after receiving calls from top cricketers, including Virat Kohli– when a number previously used by Royal Challengers Bengaluru Captain Rajat Patidar was mistakenly reassigned to him.
The villager, later identified as a 21-year-old Manish Bisi of Madagaon in Gariaband district, went ahead and bought a new SIM that, upon activation, showed Patidar’s WhatsApp profile image. Within a couple of hours, calls from people thinking they were calling the cricketer came flooding in. The confusion had arisen when the service provider, by mistake, reissued Patidar’s old number. That mistake turned Manish’s phone into an unexpected hotline to the cricketing world. Law enforcement officials were called in, and the wrongly allocated SIM was collected and returned to Patidar.
According to Villagers, some of the callers call themselves Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers. Kohli, one of the callers, asked the man, “Why are you using Patidar’s number?” leaving Manish and his friend initially convinced that it was some kind of prank. Another rather baffling moment was when AB de Villiers spoke in English, which this young boy could not understand adding to the surreal nature of the entire ordeal.
The local police took it as an urgent matter so that no more chaos could reign. The officers termed the number as a “VIP” contact and, after interrogating the villagers, recovered the SIM and returned it to its rightful owner. Meanwhile, the authorities also cautioned telecom users and providers about the threats posed by number recycling and emphasized the need for better safeguards to avert such mishaps in future.