Gurugram: Hours after claiming that he was not the man seen struggling in the Ganga river waters in a viral video before a police team helped him board a boat at Haridwar Wednesday, Deepak Hooda, the ex-captain of the national kabaddi team, has taken a U-turn, with a new statement on the incident.
As the video shared by Uttarakhand Police went viral, people who know him closely identified the man rescued as none other than Hooda.
When he returned from Haridwar to Rohtak late Wednesday evening, local media were waiting for him. In front of media persons, Deepak Hooda finally admitted that the police rescue team helped him board the boat.
Contacted by The Print a second time late Wednesday evening, Hooda said he was taking a bath in the Ganga at 10.30 am when he slipped into the river.
“I had gone to Haridwar to take a bath in the Ganga on the occasion of Mahashivratri. I was on a fast, and suddenly, I slipped, and soon one of my knees touched the bed of the river. The Ganga was not much deeper at that spot. However, the rescue team, which was nearby, noticed me and pulled me into the boat,” he said.
When asked why he lied when asked the same question earlier, Deepak Hooda said he was not in the right frame of mind after the incident, and he did not know that the Uttarakhand Police had posted the rescue video on social media.
“This was not a drowning incident by any stretch of imagination. If you carefully watch the video, you will see that I jumped from inside the not-so-deep water to the boat. So, earlier, whoever called me to confirm the incident, I [did not confirm but] denied it,” said Hooda.
What Hooda had said
The Uttarakhand Police uploaded the video of Hooda’s dramatic rescue from the fast-flowing Ganga River by a Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC) squad on social media at 4.20 pm Wednesday.
“Star kabaddi player… and a star rescue by #UttarakhandPolice! Arjuna awardee and former captain of the Indian team, Deepak Hooda, got trapped in the strong current of the Ganga in Haridwar. The 40th Battalion present at the spot immediately carried out the rescue and brought him out safely. Deepak Hooda also wholeheartedly thanked the team for their efforts,” the Uttarakhand Police wrote in an X post.
Deepak Hooda, a resident of Mohra village in Rohtak, Haryana, and now, a BJP leader, who also contested the state polls from Haryana’s Meham assembly seat in October 2024, initially ruled out the police information, claiming he was never in Haridwar.
Contacted by The Print earlier on Wednesday, he said, “I am in Rohtak for a BJP mandal president meeting in Mohra village—along with district president Ranveer Dhaka. I am not there in the video circulating in my name, and I have no link to the incident.”
Earlier, Deepak Hooda further said that he had approached the Uttarakhand Police about the misinformation, and they confessed to a lapse. “Some other person uploaded this video, incorrectly identifying the person who was rescued as me,” he told ThePrint. “The police thought it was a notable rescue and shared it, but they have assured me they will delete it soon, considering the number of calls I have been receiving.”
ThePrint reached Haridwar Police via a phone call to the SSP, but the person who responded advised contacting Public Relations Officer (PRO) Inspector Digpal Kohli on his mobile phone. On the videos of the rescue mission, PRO Kohli told The Print that those had been posted from the end of Haridwar police from the state police headquarters at Dehradun. “I will get it checked from Dehradun,” Kohli said.
The now-retired kabaddi hero, Deepak Niwas Hooda, started his sports career in 2009. As captain, he led India to a gold medal win later at the 2019 Asian Games. Later, Hooda joined the BJP on 12 February last year, in the company of his now estranged wife, Saweety Boora, a boxing player who won gold at the IBA World Boxing 2023 in the middle-weight category. Contesting the Meham seat in the 2024 assembly polls, Deepak Hooda lost to Congress candidate Balram Dangi.
This is an updated version of the report
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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