Ministry rejects conflict of interest charge against Sushil Kumar

NEW DELHI: Rejecting allegations of conflict of interest against Sushil Kumar, the Sports Ministry on Thursday defended the star grappler’s appointment as a national observer for wrestling.

A week after the suspended Narsingh Yadav wrote to the Ministry, alleging conflict of interest, Sports Minister Vijay Goel termed as “baseless”, the apprehensions raised by the grappler, who was embroiled in a pre-olympic doping scandal last year.

Narsingh had questioned how Sushil could become a national observer, given his involvement in grooming of young wrestlers at the Chhatrasal Stadium’s akhada, which is run by his father-in-law Satpal.

Sushil, India’s lone double Olympic medallist, was among 14 Olympians appointed by the Sports Minister as national observers for their respective disciplines earlier this year.

Goel redefined the role of those eminent sportspersons, who were appointed by the Ministry as national observers for the first time for the development of sports.

“All these national observers have been performing their duties as per the guidelines and role assigned to them by the Ministry,” Goel stated in a release.

The Minister also pointed out that as per the responsibilities assigned to the national observers, their job is to observe selection of national teams and to suggest measures for further strengthening free and transparent selection.