Harbhajan Singh's mother Avtar Kaur on Sunday said her son was innocent and wondered why he was being targeted after the off-spinner was slapped with a three-match ban for allegedly hurling a racial abuse at Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds. Kaur said if anything was wrong then both the players -- Singh and Symonds -- should be punished. Kaur said it appeared that Symonds also said something abusive against Singh during their altercation on the third day in the second Test of the cricket match in Sydney.

Harbhajan's sister Sandeep Kaur said the family is feeling "bad" especially when action was being taken against him without any reason. Sandeep said her brother had spoken to her mother to say he had not said anything racial against Symonds when the ICC had decided to summon Singh for a hearing. Singh has stoutly denied saying anything racial against Symonds during their run-in. She said the family was happy that the Indian team management was fully backing Singh and strongly taking up his case.