Kabaddi players dupe govt of ₹4 crore
CHANDIGARH: Two top kabaddi players from Delhi, Manjit Chillar and Rakesh Kumar, have duped the Haryana government of ₹4 crore by faking their domicile certificates in order to receive cash awards for their Incheon Asian Games gold last year. The two have also never represented Haryana in any national championship.
Chillar and Kumar, who hail from Nizampur village in Delhi, received ₹2 crore each after procuring certificates showing them as residents of Bahadurgarh in Jhajjar district. They received the cash awards at a function in August this year at Chandigarh.
As per the Haryana government’s bonafide res lines, “A person should have a permanent residence in the state or should be living in the state for the last 15 years and must have produced an affidavit that he/she has not obtained the benefit of resident of any other state.”
TOP OF THEIR GAME
The two have also received cash awards for their Asian Games exploits from the Delhi government, by virtue of them being residents of the state.
Chillar, who got the Arjuna Award this year, had written in his Arjuna form that he was a resident of Delhi, while Kumar’s records in the Railways --- his employers --- also show that he is a resident of Delhi.
Kumar’s application to the Haryana government mentions that his mother’s name as Thulsa Devi, but his 12th Board mark sheet, which he has ted, shows his mother’s name as Sheela.
An inquiry conducted by the Haryana sports department’s deputy director, Aruna Sood, has found that both the players are not from Haryana.
“On the basis of a complaint that the two had furnished an inquiry. During the course of it, the deputy director found that both are not from Haryana and that the complaint was true. I am going to hand over the case to the state vigilance department.
How they managed to procure the domicile certificates to be ascertained. This is public money, so nobody can take it fraudulently,” said Haryana sports minister Anil Vij.
“The cash awards are only for players from Haryana, who have represented the state in the Nationals and we have already incorporated it in our sports Professional cricket writers tend to live and work in a vacuum. The press box where they sit and watch the game live, and the replay of its crucial moments on television sets, before forming their opinion, is completely cut off from the ground, literally and metaphorically. The thundering cheers of the crowd or their silence, the joyous or disappointing reactions of the people and their participatory nature never permeates the enclosed space. The sport here is clinically dissected, like a doctor would examine his patient.
Having spent most of my life in this isolated environment, where the game it seems is being played for your benefit and microscopic scrutiny, any whiff of the outside air is considered an affront to our professional judgment