Fame, easy money lure sports stars to wrong side of law
Builders and gangsters draw boxers and wrestlers in their prime and they gradually get sucked into the world of crime
ROHTAK: Olympic wrestler Sushil Kumar, arrested in connection with the murder of former junior national champion Sagar Dhankar, 23, at Chhatrasal Stadium in Delhi on May 4, spent his 38th birthday behind bars on Wednesday.
Kumar, who won a freestyle wrestling silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics and a bronze at Beijing in 2008 besides gold medals at the Commonwealth Games, is not the first sportsperson with a Haryana link to be caught on the wrong side of the law.
Boxer-turned-gangster Deepak Pahal on the run
Deepak Pahal, a former junior India International and junior national boxing champion from a village in Sonepat, carries a bounty of Rs 2 lakh and faces charges under the stringent Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act for his role in four murders, extortions and robberies. He is absconding.
The 25-year-old boxer-turned gangster, who jumped parole, was part of a group of gangsters that attacked a Delhi Police team on March 25 to free their accomplice Kuldeep Mann, alias Fajja, who was killed four days later in a police encounter.
Pahal, who used to fight in the 60-kg category, had won the gold medal in the national junior boxing event in 2011 in Pune and represented India at the Haydev Aliyev Cup Boxing Tournament in Uzbekistan in 2012.
He registered himself as a boxer in November 2008.
His parents wanted him to complete his studies, but he chose to pursue a career in boxing after Class 9.
Anil Malik, who trained Pahal at Sonepat’s Sports Authority of India run facility, said: “Deepak was focused and wanted to make a name in boxing. We had a lot of expectations from him, but he was expelled for breaking the jaw of another boxer in a brawl.”
Recalling the August of 2011 when Pahal won the national junior boxing gold, Malik said, “He came up to me to say coach saab, ab mujhe Rio Olympics khelna hai (I have to participate in the Rio Olympics). It was a daunting goal for a 16-year-old but I believed in his potential. Sadly, he was caught by Delhi Police a few months before the Rio Olympics.”
Pahal’s mother Bala Devi said her son’s career was knocked out in 2012 when the Indian Boxing Federation was banned by the international body for rigging elections, putting an end to all national tournaments.
“As we have a small-land holding, Deepak was under pressure, and he was looking for
a job but to no avail. His name cropped up in connection with a gangster in Delhi in 2016. He tried to start his career again in 2018 but the police booked him in another case. Since then, he has never come home and we have disowned him,” she said.
Wrestling coach Sukhwinder on a shooting spree kills six
On February 12, 2021, a National Institute of Sports (NIA) certified wrestling coach from Sonepat, Sukhwinder Singh, 31, shot at a rival coach Manoj Malik, his wife Sakshi, a former wrestler, their toddler son along with international referee and coach Satish Dalal and wrestlers Pradeep Malik and Pooja in a fit of rage at the wrestling arena at Jaat College, Rohtak.
While five of them died the same evening and the toddler succumbed to injuries during treatment at Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences, Rohtak, it later turned out that Manoj had got Sukhwinder terminated from the job on a complaint. Sukhwinder is cooling his heels in jail.
Arjuna awardee and boxer Jai Bhagwan on wrong foot
Two-time Asian Championships boxing medallist and Arjuna awardee Jai Bhagwan, 36, who was an inspector with Haryana Police, was placed under suspension in 2019 for assaulting a hotel manager in Sirsa.
During his posting at Tohana in Fatehabad, he was charged with assaulting a woman inspector at the office of the deputy excise and taxation commissioner during inspection of a liquor outlet in Hisar in 2018.
In 2015, he was suspended for taking a bribe of Rs 1 lakh from a trader in Adampur Mandi when he was the station house officer at the Adampur police station in Hisar district.
Kabaddi player, athlete held for avenging murder
In 2016, kabaddi player Shani Dev and state-level athlete Sanjeet Singh were arrested for going on a killing spree to avenge the murder of Dev’s brother Sukhvinder Singh, another national-level kabaddi player, who was shot dead in a Rohtak village. In the same year,
state-level wrestler Sanjeev Kalia was arrested by Delhi Police for his involvement in more than 200 theft cases.
They fail to give back to society: Olympian boxer
Arjuna awardee and Olympian boxer Akhil Kumar, who is posted as a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) in Haryana Police, admits that many a sportsperson has lost the game after getting distracted from values and ethics.
“After winning name and fame, many of our players have failed to give back to society. They start considering themselves superpowers and many make the mistake of taking advantage of their fame for dubious activities. Education and counselling are also missing. If such activities happen, who will send their children to make a career in wrestling, boxing and other games where children in the rural areas excel? Many builders and gangsters lure boxers and wrestlers in their prime and they gradually get sucked into the world of crime,” he says.