In the modern-contemporary world where a majority of men across the world attach the meaning of success with ownership of luxurious houses or certain number of premium elite cars, successful athletes resorting to the same is not surprising one bit. Former India captain Virat Kohli, who hails from a national capital quite infamous for its inhabitants indulging in show-off, also owns a fleet of high-end cars.
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However, his obsession with the purchase of new cars, sometimes also at the cost of sale of slightly older versions of other cars, had put his reputation in bad light around seven years ago. Reason? He had sold his Audi R8 in the hands of a scamster!
Virat Kohli Had Sold Audi R8 To INR 500 Crore Fake Call Centre Scamster
The deal between the two parties had taken place back in 2016. Sagar Thakkar alias Shaggy, had reportedly purchased Kohli’s INR 2.3 crore worth Audi R8 for INR 60 lakh as a gift for his girlfriend. As per media reports, the Audi version supercar was bought by the former Royal Challengers Bangalore captain in 2012. While it cannot be confirmed, he must have decided to sell it off since it was an older generation model.
However, little would have Kohli known that Shaggy was the mastermind of INR 500 crore fake call centre scam, which had duped gullible Americans taxpayers for nearly two years as he and his men posed as officials of US Internal Revenue Service. Not only had Kohli never met Thakkar personally, but the deal had also been placed via his broker.
In fact, he had purchased the LMX limited edition of Audi R8 just four months after its launch a year before (in 2015). As per the Audi India spokesperson, the sports car was priced at INR 2.97 crore. As of today, being the brand ambassador of Audi India, the star batter owns more than half a dozen cars of the very brand including the Q8, Q7, RS 5, S5, and the R8 V10 Plus editions.
Virat Kohli Had Raced Against MS Dhoni And Suresh Raina In 2009
An avid car racer back in the day, Kohli had once indulged himself in the thrill of a car race against fellow Indian teammates MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina around the third ODI of Australia’s tour of India 2009.
During an interview with The Cricket Monthly back in 2015, Kohli had revealed that he was driving his car in Delhi late at night with former Indian team strength and conditioning coach Ramji Srinivasan sitting alongside him. With Dhoni and Raina in another car, the four of them were heading to watch a preview show of a tribute documentary to Michael Jackson. It was during this while that Kohli and one of Dhoni or Raina started racing in the rather empty Delhi roads.
“I love driving. I love speed. I love cars. I remember the incident. MS [Dhoni] and [Suresh] Raina were in another car. It was late at night and we were playing against Australia in Delhi. We started racing and we wanted to see who gets [to the cinema] first. It was a crazy experience and something I like to do every now and then. But I don’t really get the time during the busy hours in traffic, so I like to drive late at night to satisfy my craving or need for speed.”
Not only Kohli, but India captain Rohit Sharma also had this dream of buying an elite car quite early into his career. Thus, when he had become a crorepati during the first-ever Indian Premier League auction, all his mind could think and plan about was the car which he should be purchasing with the very amount.
