A resident of Madgaon village in Chhattisgarh’s Gariaband district received unexpected calls from cricket stars Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers after being assigned a phone number previously owned by Indian batter Rajat Patidar. Manish Bisi bought a new SIM on June 28 from a shop in Devbhog, about eight kilometers from his village. The number had belonged to Patidar but was deactivated due to inactivity. Soon after activation, Manish started receiving calls from top cricketers, which confused him and his friend Khemraj.
When they installed WhatsApp, Patidar’s photo appeared as the profile picture. Manish initially thought it was a prank. On July 15, Patidar himself called to ask for his number back. Manish and Khemraj doubted the caller’s identity and joked that they were MS Dhoni.
Patidar then warned he would involve the police. Within minutes, police officers arrived and explained the situation.
Deputy Superintendent Neha Sinha said telecom rules deactivate numbers inactive for over 90 days and reassign them to new users. Patidar reported the issue to the Madhya Pradesh Cyber Cell, which coordinated with local police. With the family’s consent, the SIM card was returned to Patidar.
Police confirmed there was no wrongdoing and said the incident was a result of normal SIM allocation procedures.
