Police registered an FIR against double Olympic medallist and former world champion Sushil Kumar a day after scuffle broke out between his and wrestler Praveen Rana's supporters at the KD Jadhav Stadium in New Delhi. On Praveen's brother Navin Rana's complaint, an FIR has been field against Sushil.
The ugly incident occurred after selection trials for the Commonwealth Games, to be held in April next year at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. It was attended by, among others, Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) President Brij Bhushan Singh Sharan. The proceedings ended on a stormy note when supporters of both the wrestlers came to blows. Sushil, who returned to the international arena after three years with a Commonwealth Championships gold, won all his bouts in the 74kg category.
But things took a nasty turn when Rana, after losing to Sushil in the semi-final clash, claimed that the decorated wrestler's supporters beat him and his elder brother "for daring to take the ring" against him. Sushil, on the other hand, claimed that he was bitten by Rana during the bout. "...he bit me but no problem, it might be his tactics to stop me from performing well. All this is a part of sports," Sushil told reporters after the bouts.
"Whatever happened here was wrong. I condemn it. There was mutual respect after the fight ended," he added. Rana alleged that Sushil's supporters gave death threats to him and dared him to participate in the upcoming Pro Wrestling League. WFI president had been worried about such an incident since the day Sushil announced his much-awaited comeback to the competitive wrestling, and had even called up the Delhi Police personnel to man the wrestling hall to avoid any untoward incident. However, his fears came true when a bunch of supporters, allegedly supporting Sushil, mercilessly landed punches and blows on Naveen and a friend accompanying him, alleging that Parveen had hit Sushil on the head and even bit him on the arm during the roughly-contested bout.
But going by the drama, which unfolded in front of media crews and supporters of participating wrestlers, it could be safely assumed that there was no mutual respect and admiration in the ‘once-united and now-divided’ wrestling community. Friday’s fracas can be seen as a part of series of incidents in the past which led to Narsingh failing the dope test and the subsequent pointing of the finger of suspicion towards Sushil and his father-in-law Satpal, leading to trust deficit and formation of of ‘groups’ among wrestlers.
