Coach held for murder of weightlifter

THE WOMAN, A PT INSTRUCTOR AT A SCHOOL HAD FIRST LODGED A COMPLAINT OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT AGAINST SONEPAT MAN IN JUNE 2018

ROHTAK: Police on Sunday cracked down the murder case of a young woman weightlifter, who was found lying along a canal near Dhamar village here on Thursday, with the arrest of weightlifter coach Bhagat Singh, a resident of Sonepat, from Haridwar in Uttarakhand.

The woman had been working as a physical training instructor at a school in Bhopal and had lodged a complaint of sexual harassment against Bhagat at Urban police station in June 2018 besides filing another complaint of threat in Bhopal police station against the coach and his sister in September 2018.

DSP Sajjan Singh said they had arrested the coach from Haridwar in connection with the killing of a weightlifter, who had lodged complaints against him.

“The accused had appeared before a court in Bhopal on February 16 and he along with the woman came to Rohtak. Both were in regular contact, despite the woman having filed two complaints against him. The woman was a divorcee and had come in contact with Singh in 2016 when they met in a weightlifting tournament in Bhopal. She came to Rohtak later and used to practice weightlifting and had accused Singh, who was working at a sports complex in Rohtak, of sexual harassment,” the DSP added.

The DSP said they will produce the accused before court on Monday.

The incident came to light on Thursday, when Dhamar village sarpanch Wazir Singh got information that the body of a woman was lying along JLN canal near the village. The sarpanch and other villagers found that the woman’s throat was slit with some sharp-edged weapon.

A case was registered under Sections 302 (murder) and 201 (destruction of evidence) of the IPC at Rohtak (Sadar) police station.