ew Delhi: His LinkedIn page shows he wants to open a football academy for young players in Himachal Pradesh, but football coach Deepak Sharma now finds himself embroiled in charges of assault and sexual harassment by two women footballers.
In their complaints to India’s top football body All India Football Federation (AIFF), the two women aged 18 and 21 claimed that Sharma, a coach at Himachal Pradesh-based Khad Football Club and a now-suspended executive member of the federation, barged into their room and physically assaulted them. The incident occurred on 28 March at the Goa Football Federation, where he was accompanying their team to play in the second division of the Indian Women’s Football League (IWL).
Sharma was allegedly drunk at the time of the incident, the two women claimed. He has since been arrested on a complaint lodged by the Goa federation, and even released on bail.
According to a senior member of the All India Football Federation, this is the first “reported incident” against Sharma, whose wife owns the football club.
“He has been associated with the Himachal Pradesh Football Federation (HPFF) for years and was elected as an executive member of the AIFF last year, in the competitions department,” this person, who didn’t want to be named, told ThePrint.
On its part, AIFF President Kalyan Chaubey told ThePrint that the federation has suspended Deepak Sharma and “barred him from any football-related activities”.
“The AIFF is determined to promote women’s football in a safe and enabling environment and will take all necessary steps to ensure this. The case has now been referred to the disciplinary committee and will be taken up emergently,” AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey said in an earlier statement.
ThePrint has reached Sharma through calls and messages. The report will be updated if and when a response is received.
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‘Stormed into our room, slapped us’
In their complaint to AIFF on 29 March, the two women players said that Sharma was frequently seen drunk during their trip.
“Yesterday as the dinner was over, we were boiling eggs as we didn’t get dinner and due to this reason Deepak Sharma got offended and stormed into our room and slapped us and assaulted us physically,” the complaint, which ThePrint has seen, says. The women’s statements formed the basis of the FIR that was eventually registered against Sharma.
Chaubey has been booked under Indian Penal Code sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrongful restraint), and 354A (sexual harassment).
According to his LinkedIn profile, 61-year-old Sharma, a resident of Himachal’s Una district, has served as general secretary at the HPFF since May 2010 and was a football coach at the Boys Sports Hostel in Shimla’s Rohru between 1994 and 2006.
“I want to start a football academy in Himachal Pradesh, India,” his bio on LinkedIn reads.
In an interview he gave to the football website ‘Indian Football Team For World Cup (IFTWC)’ in 2020, Sharma claimed “football was in his blood because my father used to play football too”
“…that addiction and attraction towards football is probably the reason why I am working here. But, I would also add that, I am a general secretary later but first and foremost a crazy football lover,” he was quoted as saying then.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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