New Delhi: The brawl at the Chhatrasal Stadium that allegedly led to the death of a former junior national wrestling champion was the result of a conspiracy hatched by Olympic medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar, who wanted to re-establish his supremacy among younger wrestlers, the Delhi Police has said in its charge sheet filed in the murder case.
There were “murmurs” that Kumar was scared of the two tenants living in a house he owned and he “nursed a deep grudge” about the loss of respect in the eyes of his students, it said.
Kumar and his associates allegedly assaulted 23-year-old wrestler Sagar Dhankar, his friend Sonu and three others at the stadium on the intervening night of May 4 and 5 over a property dispute. Later, Sagar succumbed to his injuries.
Olympic medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar and his associates beat up former junior national wrestling champion Sagar Dhankar and others with sticks, hockey and baseball bat for 30-40 minutes after bolting the gate of Chhatrasal Stadium from inside, according to the Delhi Police charge sheet in the murder case.
Police investigation showed that Sagar and his friends were abducted from two different locations in Delhi and brought to the stadium, following which its gate was locked from inside, and the security guards were asked to leave.
At the stadium, all the victims were confined and beaten mercilessly by all the accused. All the victims were beaten for around 30-40 minutes with ‘lathi’, ‘dandas’, hockey, baseball bat, etc, the police said in the final report.
The Crime Branch, which is tasked with investigating the case, also revealed that some of the accused persons carried firearms and threatened the victims with dire consequences.
Meanwhile, one of the victims managed to escape from the spot and made a call to the police, following which the local Police and PCR van staff reached the stadium.
As the accused listened to the voice of the police siren, they took the deceased Sagar and injured Sonu to the basement of the stadium. Accused persons left both the victims injured there and ran away from the spot, the probe reveals.
According to the postmortem report, the cause of Dhankad’s death was cerebral damage resulting from blunt object impact .
Five vehicles were seized from Kumar and his associates. A double-barrel gun and five live cartridges were also recovered from the back seat of one of the vehicles.
On Monday, the Crime Branch filed a charge sheet against Kumar and 12 others in the murder case, in which it named the Olympic wrestler as the main accused. The charge sheet mentions the names of 155 prosecution witnesses, including four persons who were injured during the brawl.
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In the charge sheet, the police relied on the oral dying declaration of the deceased, scientific evidence including locations of the accused, CCTV footage, weapons, and vehicles recovered from the spot. “From the material collected during the investigation so far precisely mentioned above, there is sufficient material against the accused persons,” it stated, seeking their prosecution under 22 offences of the Indian Penal Code.
The Delhi Police had filed an FIR against the accused for offences such as murder, attempt to murder, culpable homicide, criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, robbery, rioting among others.
“The present incident is the result of a criminal conspiracy hatched by accused Sushil Kumar along with his associates to take revenge from Sonu and Sagar,” the police said in its over 1,000-page charge sheet filed on Monday.
The Crime Branch said Kumar wanted to teach a lesson to Sagar and Sonu and re-establish his supremacy in the stadium through muscle power. It also listed reasons why Kumar and his associates took revenge.
According to the police, Kumar had a strong suspicion that wrestlers training under him were passing information about his movements to Sagar and Sonu and the latter could harm him as he had an extensive criminal background.
“When he realised that some of his own trainees were passing information about him to Sonu and Sagar, he felt betrayed and thus nursed a deep grudge against Sonu and Sagar for loss of respect in the eyes of his students,” the charge sheet stated.
Notorious criminal Kala Jathedi, who was recently arrested, told the police that Kumar’s ego was hurt after Sagar and Sonu refused to vacate his flat because of which he felt a loss of respect.
Also read: Delhi Police files charge sheet against wrestler Sushil Kumar in Chhatrasal murder case