Sports & controversies: Sexual harassment on junior wrestlers; is it a case of false framing

The alleged sexual harassment of junior wrestlers is emerging as a case to frame one of the coaches — Ajit Maan or Vishnu Das —by 'forces' in the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), says a report in Hindustan Times.

Of the four wrestlers who levelled harassment charges in writing, two of them denied their involvement and claimed that their signatures had been faked. “I always sign in English, and my signature on the complaint letter is in Hindi,” said one the wrestlers, Lalita, who deposed before the probe committee headed by Rachna Govil, regional director of the Sports Authority of India, here on Monday. “All the four signatures on the complaint are signed by one individual and this can be verified by a writing expert,” Lalita told HT.

The other girl too, in a faxed message to the sports ministry, echoed a similar sentiment. The other two wrestlers are also expected to depose before the committee in a day or two.  “Coach sir is like my uncle and I have no complaint against him. My name is being dragged into this to defame me and deny me a chance to participate in future events,” said Lalita, who won bronze at the Asian Junior Championship in Kazakhstan last week.

Meanwhile discus thrower Krishna Poonia finished second in the post-Prefontaine Elite women's discus meet at Portland, Oregon, on Sunday with a throw of 62.34 metres. Russian Darya Pischalnikova was first with 66.38m in the meet held a day after the two-day Diamond League meeting at Eugene.

Poonia, the Indian record holder with 64.76m, had taken the fourth place in the Eugene meet with a throw of 62.11m, says The Tribune.

According to a report in The Hindu, Lawyer R.K. Anand contended on Monday that the ‘chain of custody' of the samples was faulty, there was no proper initial review of the laboratory report, and the laboratory's analytical procedures were flawed in the case of 11 sportspersons charged with methylhexaneamine violations.

Eleven athletes including wrestlers Rajeev Tomar and Mausam Khatri, shot putter Saurabh Vij, and swimmer Richa Mishra are facing doping charges dating back to August, 2010.

Starting his final arguments before a National Anti-Doping Disciplinary panel (NADDP) headed by Dinesh Dayal, in the presence of a battery of scientists from the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL), Anand drilled holes in the procedures including ‘external chain of custody' of the samples. Arguments would continue on Wednesday.