Court denies bail to Olympian Sushil Kumar in Chhatrasal stadium murder case

A Delhi court on Tuesday denied bail to wrestler and two-time Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar in connection with the murder of co-wrestler Sagar Dhankad at Chhatrasal stadium on May 4, saying that “when renowned people commit such heinous offence, then the detrimental effects on the society are enormous”.

Additional sessions judge Shivaji Anand, while dismissing the bail application, said Kumar was clearly visible on the video footage beating the victims. “Prima facie, the applicant/accused (Kumar) is visible in the video as reflected in the photographs taken out of the same video footage: He is clearly visible and seemed to be causing severe injuries,” the judge said.

The court noted that a video was recovered from the phone of the co-accused Prince, where Kumar was seen carrying a stick and beating the victims.

The judge also said that the expert from forensic laboratory, Gandhi Nagar, where the phone was sent for examination, has opined that there was no sign of tampering with the footage.

Dhankad, a wrestler, Bhagat Singh and Jaibhagwan alias Sonu Mahal were allegedly abducted and beaten by Kumar and his accomplices inside Chhatrasal stadium on the night of May 4. Dhankad succumbed to his injuries, but others survived the assault.

The police have filed the charge sheet against Kumar and 12 others for murder, abduction, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy, destruction of evidence, criminal intimidation, culpable homicide not amounting to murder, house-trespass, rioting and voluntarily causing hurt. Additionally, Kumar has also been booked for robbery, dacoity and dishonestly receiving stolen property. Five suspects are yet to be arrested in the case.

Kumar, a Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award winner, was arrested on May 23.

The court, in its order, said there are a total of 17 accused and charge sheet has been filed only against 13 of them, while investigation is ongoing with respect to the remaining accused is still going on. It said that given the number of injured persons to be five, a lot of information has to be gathered and hence minor discrepancies in making out the statements cannot be ruled out.

“Some discrepancies in the statements may occur but they do not seem to be detrimental to the whole case of the prosecution. This is not an appropriate stage to consider the whole facts in detail; only prima facie cases are to be seen and the minor discrepancies in statements are not sufficient to warrant bail. The victims were lifted from different places at gunpoint.

“As per the charge-sheet, it was a daring and awful act of the accused persons that they openly caused such brutal injuries to the victims without having any fear and as per the charge-sheet, they are having firearms as well as other weapons like sticks, dandas etc,” the court said.

Kumar’s counsel, Pradeep Rana argued that the police made a false case against his client and presented a “guilty image” of him.

Rana said that leaks to the media were allegedly facilitated on an “unprecedented level” and “false information was fed to the media” in order to wrongfully establish a connection between Kumar and gangsters.

Additional public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava opposed the bail plea, saying the accused allegedly hunted 27-year old Sagar Dhankad like wild animals.

“They were behaving like wild animals on a hunt. They hunted him (Sagar) like wild pigs. He was flailing on the floor while they mercilessly beat him,” Shrivastava said.

The public prosecutor further said there was delay in registration of the FIR as the witnesses were not in a position to give statements.

The police, in its charge sheet, have told the court that Kumar was counselled by the experts who said that the former Olympian showed no signs of remorse.