Ex-cricketer Robin Morris arrested for ‘kidnapping’ loan agent

Mumbai: Mumbai police have arrested Robin Morris, a former Ranji player, and four others for allegedly kidnapping a loan agent and trying to extort money from his family. Morris (53) is a former batsman who represented Mumbai team in the Ranji trophy. Besides Morris, other accused were identified as Gravin D’Souza, Ahmed Ali Ansari, Alex Miranda and Rupesh Bhimani.

According to the senior inspector, Datta Shinde, Kurla police station, “A few years ago, Morris had approached a loan agent for securing a loan of `3 crore from a bank. The agent charged him a commission of `7 lakh, but could not manage to get the loan sanctioned, the police official said. Morris then started demanding his money back, following which the agent returned `5.5 lakh but could not pay the balance despite making repeated demands. On November 30, Morris called him for a meeting outside the Kurla railway station. When the agent, a 43-year-old man, arrived at the spot, Morris and four others allegedly took him to the cricketer’s Versova house in a taxi and confined him to a room.

Morris allegedly asked the agent to call his family members and tell them to bring the balance amount if they wanted him to be released. The frightened family members approached the Kurla police. A team of Kurla Police went to Morris’s Versova house on December 1, rescued the agent and arrested the five accused. Morris and others were booked for kidnapping, criminal intimidation, wrongful confinement and assault for extortion, inspector Shinde said. All of them are now in judicial custody.

Last year Morris was caught in a sting operation on cricket betting, where it was alleged that he had facilitated pitch-doctoring ahead of India-Sri Lanka, India-England and India-Australia matches. He denied the allegations.