ALAPPUZHA: The athletes of the Sport Authority of India, Punnamada centre, who tried to commit suicide on May 7, said on Friday that they had taken the extreme step following harassment and ragging by six senior athletes staying at the centre under the Centre of Excellence Scheme.
The athletes, who were discharged from the Medical College Hospital here on Friday, said this in their statement before Justice Cyriac Joseph, acting chairperson of Human Rights Commission, and Mr I.R. Curilose, Deputy Superintendent (Investigation).
The students said that the seniors had been harassing them for a long time. “Ragging is prevalent at the centre irrespective of boys and girls. The seniors forced us to wash their undergarments, do body massage and overtime work,” they said.
The issue had erupted after a party conducted at the centre to celebrate the victory of SAI athletes in the National Games in February. In the party, wine was served and they were forced to drink it.
The next day, the seniors went outside the hostel without the permission of the authorities. When the officials caught them red-handed, they, including the Games medallists, started mental and physical harassment of them on a daily basis accusing them of spilling the beans, the athletes said and added that the seniors had told them to commit suicide and offered money to buy poison.
The commission reached here at 1p.m. after calling on the parents of Aparna Ramabhadran, who had committed suicide. Mr K.S. Reji, father of a discharged athlete, told DC that the SAI authorities were trying to hide the truth. “The beer-theory was fabricated by the SAI authorities. They did not go for the wedding of anybody as SAI director-general Injetis Sreenivas had said in his report to the union sports ministry on May 13. The only reason for the incident was harassment,” he said.
Mr Reji, a rowing champion from Kuttanad, argued that the Punnamada SAI centre had not approved the Centre of Excellency Scheme. “But the seniors are accommodated at the centre under the non-existing scheme,” he alleged.
A senior student Dittymol denied these allegations and said they were busy with their training sessions inside and outside the state.
Meanwhile, M. Ragini, who has been centre in-charge here for a decade, told DC that there were 56 athletes (rowing -25, Kayaking- Canoeing- 31) at the centre under the excellence category scheme. “I still don’t know what went wrong. I had not received any complaints from the athletes either in connection with the recent incident or any in the past,” she said.
Mr Ajay Kumar, coach of the four athletes, also pointed out that there were no reasons for the suicide attempt. Denying ragging at the centre, R. Jishnu Mon, another trainee athlete, said they were caught with beer in the hostel room. “I don’t know who brought the beer,” he said.
