Sports Authority of India athlete’s kin red card ‘clean chit’

ALAPPUZHA: Geetha Raghavan, mother of athlete Aparna Ramabhadran who died in a suicide pact leaving three others battling for life, has rejected Sports Authorities of India (SAI) director general (DG) Injeti Srinivas’s report giving clean chit to their hostel.

KS Saji, father of an athlete who is recuperating at the Medical College Hospital here too refused to accept the DG’s observations and demanded a CBI probe. In his report to the Union Sports Ministry, he has said that the prima facie inquiry failed to establish any “foul play”.

Despite Mr Srinivas being refrained from drawing any conclusion as it was still under police investigation, their relatives firmly believe that harassment and ragging by seniors prompted them to take their own lives.

They also fear his report could influence the police investigation. “I’m surprised. I’ve no faith in the SAI report and I will not approve it,” she told DC.

“My daughter did call me early in the morning on the day. She was shivering. She told me that she was being relentlessly harassed by two seniors.” But she did not record the conversation.

“I don’t have evidence to prove it. I do know we won’t get justice from the SAI authorities. I reject the DG’s findings. They want to keep their reputation intact,” she said.

In fact, the report speaks of the circumstances that led to the suicide. The athletes allegedly consumed alcohol (beer) at a wedding function four or five days earlier.

Some of their seniors came to know about it and they advised them not to do it. They were not exactly found to be harassing them. Later when the warden knew about it, she scolded them and threatened to inform their parents. She was actually behaving like a 'mother', discouraging them.

Mr Srinivas observes that the girls were scared of social stigma and poverty facing them if they had to leave the training centre.

“The families of them were banking on their fortune as sports women. Aparna's family lives in a hutment and her father doesn't earn. The mere prospect of being thrown out of the hostel weighed heavily on their minds and that could have possibly led to the suicide pact,” his report says.

“They were afraid of going back to the same poverty-stricken society. They were getting every facility in the SAI hostel and they didn’t want to leave the place.”

However, the mother, an angnawadi teacher, rejects this angle pointing out that it was not an isolated incident. “I had gone to the SAI centre a couple of times to fix such issues in the past and the seniors were warned,” she said alleging that the district Rowers Boat Association president Sreekumar had tried to influence the family offering money.

“The DG has prepared the report without talking to either athletes under treatment or their parents. We firmly believe that the children took the extreme step as a result of the harassment,” he said.

V Sureshkumar, the district police chief who overseeing probe, said the police had not reached any conclusion but preliminary investigation found no harassment.

The need to take detailed statements from the three girls in hospital who are now completely out of danger.

Dr Santhosh Raghavan, superintendent of the MCH, said it would take over a week to get them discharged. “The girls are still under observation. They need counseling,” he said.