- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA’S two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar will follow actions at the Tokyo Games starting Friday (23) but he will do so from the confinements of a jail where he is spending his days on charges of kidnap and murder.
The 38-year-old’s lawyer had requested the authorities at Tihar Jail, New Delhi, to arrange for a television for him and they accepted it.
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“We have allowed Sushil to watch television in the common area of his ward along with others,” Sandeep Goel, director general of Delhi prisons, told reporters.
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“He had made a request through his lawyer for a TV to stay updated about wrestling matches and other happenings,” he added.
Kumar, who won a silver in wrestling at the 2008 Beijing Games and bronze at the 2012 edition at London, was arrested in May following a week-long manhunt over the murder of promising wrestler Sagar Dhankad at a stadium in Delhi. Dhankad was allegedly beaten to death by Kumar and 12 other men at Chhatrasal Stadium in the same month.
Kumar pleaded innocent and accused the police of conducting a biased investigation.
Besides being the only Indian to have won two Olympic medals after independence (Norman Pritchard won two silvers in athletics in the 1900 edition), Kumar has also won gold medals at top tournaments like World Championships, Commonwealth Games and Asian Championships and was honoured with India’s highest honour for sportspersons – Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna – in 2009.
In June, a Delhi court dismissed a plea by Kumar seeking special food and supplements in prison. He has been kept in a separate cell for security reasons.
