Kabbadi coach arrested for raping teenage player

NEWDELHI: Police on Tuesday night arrested a 49-year-old former Delhi wrestler in connection with the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl, also a kabbadi player, on July 9. Police registered the case on Monday after the teen approached Delhi Police alleging that a man spiked her drink and sexually assaulted her at a flat in outer Delhi.

NEW DELHI: Police on Tuesday night arrested a 49-year-old former Delhi wrestler in connection with the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl, also a kabbadi player on July 9.

Police registered the case on Monday after the teen approached Delhi Police alleging that a man spiked her drink which made her unconscious and sexually assaulted her at a flat in outer Delhi. The teen is a statelevel kabaddi player.

Police said the alleged rapist Naresh Dahiya hails from Karala village in Haryana. He isa decorated wrestling coach who trains players at Ch hat ra sal Stadium in north-west Delhi and runs an akhada in Shahbad Dairy.

According to the police, he allegedly lured the teen in his car promising to introduce her to other state-level kabaddi players and took her to a flat in Rohini.

The teen, in her complaint on Monday evening, alleged that on July 9, she was on her way to the stadium, when the man met her and claimed to be a stadium official and a coach.

Them an then took her to a flat in Rohini, allegedly served her drinks laced with sedatives and raped her. The girl alleged that she fell unconscious. She later realised that she was sexually

abused and was dropped near the stadium. She alleged that Dahiya warned her to not speak to her parents or the police about the incident and threatened her of dire consequences. For more than a week, she did not lodge an FIR as she could not muster the courage to approach the police. She told the police she was traumatised but her friends encouraged her to file a complaint.