AIFF executive committee member arrested for alleged physical assault on women players

Indian football was rocked by further controversy when Deepak Sharma, a member of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) Executive Committee was arrested on Saturday evening for allegedly assaulting two women players of Khad FC physically in a drunken state.

The incident took place on Thursday night (March 28) in Mapusa, Goa. The players had filed a complaint on Friday with the AIFF and later an FIR with the police.

Himachal Pradesh’s Khad FC is currently playing in the inaugural edition of Indian Women’s League 2.

After the Goa Football Federation (GFA) filed a complaint on Friday, the local police started investigating the case against Deepak, who is also the general secretary of the Himachal Pradesh Football Association.

“Acting on this complaint, an FIR was registered at the Mapusa Police Station under sections 354A, 323 and 341 of the Indian Penal Code. Also, in this case, the main accused, who has been identified as Deepak Sharma, has been arrested,” Akshat Kaushal, the Superintendent of Police of North Goa, said.

The AIFF, after an urgent meeting under president Kalyan Chaubey on Saturday, formed a threemember committee to submit a report on the issue in seven days.

Taking cognizance of the matter, Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur tweeted, “The Ministry of Sports has taken a serious note of an alleged physical assault upon women footballers by an official during the ongoing Indian Women’s League in Goa.”

The incident became public on the morning of March 29 and the match commissioner, Sujesh Rajan, reached out to the GFA for quick action.

“In the morning, I got a call from the Match Commissioner saying that there was a complaint,” Jonathan D’Sousa, the vice president of GFA, told The Hindu.

“So, the General Secretary and the Match Commissioner went to the place where the girls were staying and they did a preliminary investigation. They forwarded their report to the AIFF.”

Deepak was the only male in the contingent, as confirmed by GFA’s secretary Adlear D’Cruz, who was one of the people to conduct the preliminary investigation.

“He (had) started drinking right from the time they (started travelling) in the tempo traveller in Himachal Pradesh.

“He was drinking openly and was the only male in the vehicle and was fully drunk right from that day,” he told The Hindu.

“He assaulted both of them and three girls were witnesses.

“He just barged into the room and started assaulting them.”

The girls had also accused the team manager, Nandita Sharma — who is the accused’s wife — of ‘defending’ Deepak.