New Delhi: The BCCI has appointed suspended Meghalaya Cricket Association (MCA) secretary Rayonald Kharkamni as North-East Zone convener for a national women’s T20 tournament, four months after the state association flagged his suspension and findings of negligence in handling sexual harassment complaints by women cricketers.
The 26 October appointment for the BCCI Senior Women’s T20 Inter-Zonal Tournament 2026-27, scheduled from 24 November to 4 December, came despite the MCA having written to BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia on 27 June. It informed the board of Kharkamni’s suspension and the Meghalaya State Commission for Women’s findings against him and three other office-bearers. The commission, on 26 June, had held them responsible for grave negligence in dealing with complaints against the team’s then coach and assistant manager.
Members of the MCA Under-23 women’s team had made those complaints in December 2025 against the team’s then head coach Hemant Roy and then assistant manager Sanjay Mondal. They were unaddressed for months before the players approached the Meghalaya State Commission for Women in May 2026. The finding against Kharkamni, who became secretary on 14 February 2025, concerns the handling of the complaints.
It was only after the Meghalaya High Court upheld Kharkamni’s suspension on 30 October that the BCCI indicated to the MCA it would take the court’s order into account, an MCA official told ThePrint, requesting anonymity. Yet Kharkamni had already been appointed to the BCCI tournament role four days earlier. The BCCI has not announced any concrete action against Kharkamni so far.
ThePrint reached out to the BCCI last week, twice via their official email and contacted BCCI Secretary Devajit Saikia over WhatsApp but has not yet received a response. The copy will be updated as soon as we receive a reply.
What the commission found
Two complaints of sexual harassment dated 2 and 3 December 2025 were emailed to the MCA’s official address and to honorary secretary Kharkamni’s personal email address, according to the women commission. The team had approached the commission on 4 May 2026, after five months of inaction on their complaints.
In its 5 June order, the MSCW found that the conduct of both Roy and Mondal amounted to sexual harassment.
In its second order dated 26 June, the commission held that the non-action of four MCA office-bearers showed grave negligence and non-compliance with the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act, 2013. The officials included Kharkamni, then MCA president Nababrata Bhattacharjee; operations manager Shining Star Lyngdoh; and then treasurer Dhrubajyoti Thakuria. The commission called for corrective, disciplinary and institutional action.
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The suspension
Sangma, who became MCA president on 19 December 2025 (nearly three weeks after the complaints were filed), suspended Kharkamni on 27 June, a day after the second commission order and nearly seven months after the complaints.
Citing emergency powers under Rule 18(a) of the MCA constitution, the order barred Kharkamni from the office of honorary secretary and from access to MCA communications, accounts and records. It gave him three days to show cause why he should not face removal and debarment. It also referred his conduct to the MCA Ombudsman, retired Justice BD Agarwal.
Sangma also wrote to BCCI secretary Saikia on 27 June, informing him of the suspension and the commission’s findings. ThePrint has accessed a copy of the email. In it, Sangma said he was writing in the spirit of “transparency, accountability and the shared duty that all cricket institutions owe to the women and girls who represent the sport”.
The email asked the BCCI to record the findings and the action taken against Kharkamni and the two men found guilty of harassment. It also asked the board to consider whether any further national-level action was warranted, including on their involvement in BCCI-affiliated activity, and to help the MCA set up an Internal Committee and an anti-harassment policy.
When contacted regarding the five-month delay in the MCA acting on the players’ complaint under Sangma, the association president declined to comment.
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Allegations from Ri Bhoi
An executive member of the Ri Bhoi District Cricket Association (RBDCA), an affiliate of the MCA that runs league cricket and talent scouting in the district, spoke to ThePrint on the condition of anonymity. The executive said that Kharkamni “used to always have women camp in RBDCA Nongkhrah ground and the players were given bad unsafe hotel. That hotel we all in Ribhoi refer to as a red-light type hotel. All the wrong activities happen there.”
The commission’s 26 June order records a similar concern. It cited reports of questionable night-time activity at a hotel at Nongpoh used for women’s camps and said it would record these as “questionable activities” warranting further inquiry. It said that, if substantiated, the conduct could amount to a serious offence outside its own jurisdiction. It directed the MCA to permanently stop using the hotel for the team and staff. The order does not name the hotel or say who chose it.
“Women players used to feel unsafe. Ri Bhoi also has many good resorts and homestays so we never understand why he used to put them in a bad hotel. People from other districts used to call and tell us that parents also complain about safety. But the Secretary wouldn’t listen,” the executive added.
The official also alleged that Kharkamni threatened female players when they tried to protest.
“The players have been threatened time and again. They are so scared to speak up because everyone knows Kharkamni has strong connection with BCCI officials,” the whistleblower said.
The commission’s 26 June order separately recorded phone calls and pressure on team members discouraging them from approaching it, and said the complainants’ confidentiality was not maintained. It did not say who was responsible.
“I think he doesn’t do his duty as Secretary, that is why the women complained and then he got suspended by the new MCA president (Sangma),” the official said.
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Suspended, but still acting?
Despite his suspension, Kharkamni allegedly continued to exercise authority within the association.
On 27 June, the day of the suspension order, Kharkamni signed a notice as honorary secretary convening a Special General Meeting on 3 July. The agenda included ratifying minutes of a 9 May Emergent Apex Council meeting, appointing an Ombudsman and deliberating on the MSCW’s order.
On 8 September, about ten weeks after the suspension, Kharkamni signed a notification as honorary secretary announcing MCA selection trials for the 2026-27 domestic season, including for senior men, Under-23 men and Under-19 women’s teams. ThePrint has accessed the notification, which was copied to the BCCI, the Apex Council, affiliated units and the press. It said the MCA’s bank account was frozen because of “unavoidable circumstances” and that players would have to meet their own costs and be reimbursed later.
Sangma raised the association’s functioning with Saikia again in a letter dated 17 September. It attributed the suspension of the MCA’s bank account to the lack of a properly authorised signatory resolution. It blamed Kharkamni for this, saying he lobbied to regain control of the account after the Apex Council restricted it in March to the president and a new treasurer.
Kharkamni also froze a State Bank of India account, according to the letter. It also alleged that some staff salaries had gone unpaid, that Sangma was meeting expenses and arranging trials from his personal funds, and that state teams were performing poorly amid opaque selection.
In the 26th Apex Council meeting on March 7, the council decided that the president and treasurer would be the permanent signatory combination. All expenses must be passed through the Apex council. It was also said that the bank must be notified of this combination.
However, after the account was frozen, Kharkamni allegedly presented an undated document to the bank listing Treasurer Eddystone Shylla and himself as authorised signatories.
ThePrint has also accessed copies of some cheques which show that even though the new Apex Council was sworn in on 19 December last year, former treasurer Thakuria, also named in the Women’s Commission report, signed off cheques till January this year, amounting to Rs 1 crore.
The letter alleged that Kharkamni continued to control the association’s official email account despite his suspension and had used it to log the president and other office-bearers out. It asked the board to exercise caution towards communications from that account until the Meghalaya High Court matters are cleared.
“The Board has, I understand, also received communication suggesting that the Association’s official email account was compromised or hacked, and I am given to understand that Kharkamni filed a First Information Report to this effect in April. I would ask the Board to examine this claim against what has actually transpired since,” Sangma wrote.
“Far from being locked out by any external actor, it is Kharkamni who has retained, and continues to exercise, complete and unilateral access to that account (meghalayacricket11@gmail.com), despite being suspended,” he added.
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In High Court
The dispute reached the Meghalaya High Court through petitions by Sangma, defending the Ombudsman’s appointment and Kharkamni’s suspension. Kharkamni too filed petitions challenging both.
On 1 July, the court stayed the Special General Meeting Kharkamni had called for 3 July, kept the resolutions of a 9 May Apex Council meeting suspended and directed the Ombudsman to continue functioning.
On 9 October, hearing Sangma’s contempt petition against Kharkamni and four others, the court was told that a 7 September meeting had adopted resolutions on the Ombudsman, the Internal Committee and the Selection Committee, in violation of the 1 July order. It noted that only Kharkamni had been served and listed the matter for 13 October. It made no finding of contempt.
On 30 October, Justice HS Thangkhiew decided all the petitions in a common judgment.
The court said Justice Agarwal’s appointment as the ombudsman did not strictly follow the MCA constitution, which requires an annual general meeting. It noted, however, that the Apex Council ratified him in March at a meeting Kharkamni had convened, and that Kharkamni objected only after the MSCW’s orders. It declined to entertain his challenge and said the Ombudsman will function until the next annual general meeting.
The court held that the president’s emergency powers allowed an interim suspension to protect the complainants and evidence while the Ombudsman inquires. It cited what it described as the MSCW’s finding of a “deliberate cover up” of the December 2025 complaints, and upheld the suspension.
The court declared the 3 July meeting notice and the 9 May and 7 September resolutions illegal. It said the last was an attempt to undo the suspension while its stay orders were in force.
It said the MSCW’s findings exposed the MCA’s failure to protect women players. The court directed the MCA to implement the sexual harassment law strictly and put safety protocols in place, preferably within six weeks. Kharkamni must hand over MCA assets, including the official email account, within two weeks.
On 6 November, MCA Ombudsman Agarwal issued his final order in Complaint Case No. 2 of 2026, upholding Kharkamni’s suspension for the remainder of the current elected body’s tenure, which ends in December 2028. He also directed Kharkamni to hand over all MCA property, records and access credentials to the president.
While the BCCI has announced no action, Kharkamni was appointed as North-East Zone convener on 26 October.
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)