A day after two junior women wrestlers claimed their signatures were forged in a sexual harassment complaint to the sports minister, Ajay Maken, a third grappler also disowned the letter on Tuesday.
The wrestler, Apoorva Tyagi, told a committee headed by regional director of the Sports Authority of India's Lucknow centre which is probing the issue that no such incident took place with her at the camp. The letter was purportedly written by four campers, accusing one of their coaches of misconduct.
Upset family
However, Tyagi told HT after her deposition: "I never made a complaint to anyone and my signature is forged. In fact, I saw the letter for the first time today. If something of this kind had happened to me, I would have lodged a complaint with the local officials first instead of submitting it to the sports minister directly."
The wrestler's father, Pradeep Tyagi, was also upset his daughter's name has been dragged into the controversy. “She never informed us of any such incident. It is a fake incident and my daughter has nothing to do with it," he said.
“It seems the wrestlers are being used by some forces as instruments to settle personal scores. It's really disappointing that some people with bad intentions are trying to defame the sport.”
{{/usCountry}}“It seems the wrestlers are being used by some forces as instruments to settle personal scores. It's really disappointing that some people with bad intentions are trying to defame the sport.”
{{/usCountry}}A senior WFI official claimed the incident was an attempt to tarnish its image and meant to discourage it from developing the Lucknow SAI centre as a wrestling hub.