The complainant said Mr Singh first saw her at a gym and then contacted her on Instagram.
new Delhi:
The Chandigarh Police on Friday registered a case of sexual harassment and criminal intimidation against Haryana Sports Minister Sandeep Singh on the basis of a complaint by a junior athletics coach. The minister has handed over his portfolio to the chief minister, and dismissed the allegations as an attempt to ‘malign his image’.
He said, “Attempts are being made to malign my image. I hope that there will be a thorough investigation into the false allegations leveled against me. Till the investigation report comes, I hand over the responsibility of the sports department to the chief minister.” Said.
The woman held a press conference at the office of the opposition Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), demanding that the Manohar Lal Khattar government immediately sack Sandeep Singh and set up a special investigation team to probe the matter. She said the minister harassed her by repeatedly sending messages on social media from February to November last year. He touched her inappropriately and also threatened her in messages, alleging that she had to quit social media because of the constant harassment.
Senior Congress leader and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda also demanded a fair probe into the matter.
The complainant said Mr Singh first saw her at a gym and then contacted her on Instagram.
Later the minister kept insisting on meeting him. “He messaged me on Instagram and said that my National Sports Certificate is pending and wanted to meet in this regard,” he added.
“Unfortunately, my certificate has been lost by my federation and I am taking it up with the relevant authorities.”
The woman said she finally agreed to meet him at his residence-cum-camp office with some other documents in her possession and alleged that the minister sexually assaulted her when she went there.
Sandeep Singh, the sitting BJP MLA from Pehowa in Kurukshetra, is also a professional field hockey player, and was the captain of the Indian national field hockey team.
A biopic based on Mr. Singh was released in 2018, titled ‘Soorma’, in which popular Punjabi singer and actor Diljit Dosanjh played his role. He was also a judge on the reality TV show MTV Roadies.
He shot to fame after miraculously recovering from a gunshot wound when he was 20. Mr Singh was accidentally shot by an assistant sub-inspector of the Railway Police Force, just two days before the 2007 Hockey World Cup, on a Delhi-bound train, paralyzing him from the waist down for a year.