Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 1: Making an ignominious exist after an exemplary sporting career, the former India hockey captain Sandeep Singh on Sunday quit as the sports minister of Haryana after the Chandigarh police registered a case of sexual harassment and criminal intimidation against him on a compliant by a junior athletics coach.
Singh while handing his sports portfolio back to the chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar denied the allegations and claimed that he was being wrongly framed and the complaint was deliberately made “only to spoil my image.” But he said he was handing over the Sports and Youth Affairs Department to the Chief Minister on the “moral grounds” and expected him to take the next decision on the matter after the investigation into the matter was completed.
He said an atmosphere was being created to spoil his image and sought an impartial probe into the “false allegations” by the junior coach of the sports department. “There is an attempt to spoil my image. I hope there will be a thorough investigation into the false allegations levelled against me. I hand over the responsibility of the Sports department to the Chief Minister until the report of the investigation comes out,” he said.
The complainant, on the contrary claimed before the Haryana home minister Anil Vij that more women would come forward to give their testimony against Singh of he was arrested. Vij, however, has promised to carry out an impartial investigation into the charges after a meeting with Khattar and hearing Singh’s version of the entire episode.
The woman held a press conference at the office of the opposition party Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), which has demanded that Khattar immediately sack Sandeep Singh and set up a Special Investigation Team to probe the matter. She said the minister harassed her from February to November by repeated messages on social media. He touched her inappropriately and also threatened her in messages, she alleged, adding that she had to quit social media due to the constant harassment. Senior Congress leader and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda had also demanded an impartial inquiry into the matter.
The complainant said Mr Singh had first seen her at a gym and then contacted her on Instagram. The minister later kept insisting that they meet up, she said. “He messaged me on Instagram and said my national games certificate is pending and wanted to meet in this regard,” she added.
“Unfortunately, my certificate has been misplaced by my federation and I have been taking it up with the authorities concerned.” The woman said she finally agreed to meet him at his residence-cum-camp office in Chandigarh with some other documents she had, and alleged that when she went there, the minister indulged in sexual misconduct.
The junior athletics coach called on Vij on Sunday and told him that more such women who have been harassed would come forward to give their testimony if the Sports Minister was arrested. “After all, how long will a person remain silent?” the coach exclaimed, alleging that she has dissuaded Sandeep Singh several times, but his antics continued.
The coach said that the Sports Minister had harassed her repeatedly since February. “A time comes when you have to raise your voice. The Sports Minister has officially, mentally harassed me,” she said, adding that a case was registered against the Sports Minister after her complaint, and she is confident that she will get justice.
Sandeep Singh is a former captain of the Indian national hockey team and was a penalty corner specialist which earned him the nickname “Flicker Singh.” He was the top scorer at the 2008 and 2009 editions of the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, with India winning gold in the latter.
He rose to fame after a miraculous recovery from a gun-shot wound when he was 20. Mr Singh was accidentally shot by an assistant sub-inspector of the Railways Police Force, on board a train to Delhi, just two days before the 2007 Hockey World Cup, rendering him paralysed from the waist down for a year. Mr Singh recovered from the freak incident and re-established himself in the Indian national team and a biographical film, titled Soorma, was released in 2018 based on Mr Singh’s life with Diljit Dosanjh helming the lead role.
Even though the film could not achieve overwhelming commercial success and received only mixed reviews nationally, it was widely appreciated in Punjab and Haryana. The film acted as a medium for Sandeep’s real-life journey to reach common households. The film focused on his struggle and hard work to enter the national hockey team, the ill-fated spinal injury days before a World Cup, and the spirited comeback after the treatment and rehabilitation.
Mr Singh had also appeared as a judge in the reality show MTV Roadies. Mr Singh was elected as an MLA from Haryana’s Pehowa constituency in Kurukshetra on a BJP ticket in the 2019 state assembly elections. He was subsequently sworn in as sports minister in the Haryana cabinet.
