A Delhi court on Tuesday denied bail to Olympian Sushil Kumar for his alleged involvement in the death of junior national wrestling champion Sagar Dhankar. The Olympian was arrested on May 23 for his role in the Chhatrasal Stadium murder case and is lodged in jail since June 2.
Police said that Kumar, along with his associates, assaulted Dhankar (which led to his death) and his friends in Delhi’s Chhatrasal Stadium in May over a property dispute.
In his bail plea, Kumar said that the police tried to paint a ‘false and guilty image’ of him and presented distorted information about the case to the media to establish connections between him and a few gangsters.
Kumar, who won bronze medal at Beijing Olympics in 2008 and a silver at London in 2012 games, was also booked for robbery, dacoity and dishonestly receiving stolen property, according to a report by HT.
According to a Delhi Police chargesheet accessed by HT, the police said that Kumar and Dhankar were involved in a feud over a flat in Model Town. Dhankar allegedly refused to vacate the property despite several intimations by Sushil Kumar. Although Dhankar eventually vacated the premises sometime between March and April this year, Kumar “felt humiliated”, the chargesheet added.
Police said that Kumar felt that his ‘ego was bruised by rumours of his diminishing clout and he wanted to re-establish his authority among younger athletes’, the report from HT said.
Police named 13 accused in the first chargesheet, filed on August 2, and held the Olympian as the primary accused. Police on Monday said that there are at least 17 accused in the alleged murder case and said that it will file a supplementary chargesheet soon.
