Sushil Kumar, 39, considered one of India’s most embellished athletes, was arrested in May 2021 shortly after the dying of fellow wrestler Sagar Dhankar (generally written as Sagar Dhankad or Sagar Rana). The 23-year-old Dhankar had been overwhelmed to dying with sticks by a gang of males inside Delhi’s famed Chhatrasal Stadium.

Kumar was named a suspect within the assault by police who claimed to have obtained mobile phone digicam footage from the incident. After he was named Kumar lead police on a 20 day manhunt earlier than being captured.

Kumar has remained in jail since his arrest. He has repeatedly been denied bail on grounds that witnesses are ‘terrified’ of Kumar and his alleged connections to organized crime in Delhi and the neighbouring states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

India Today experiences {that a} Delhi courtroom has now charged Kumar with Dhankar’s homicide, in addition to try to homicide, rioting and illegal meeting. Kumar, and 17 co-defendants, will now go to trial to reply these costs.

Prosecutors imagine that Kumar assembled a mob, that included fellow wrestlers from the Chhatrasal Stadium steady, after which lead them in abducting Dhankar and 4 others. Dhankar used to wrestler at Chhatrasal Stadium, too, however had lately left to hitch a rival steady.

It is alleged that Kumar’s group introduced Dhankar and the others to Chhatrasal after which beat them with varied weapons. Dhankar, the primary goal of the assault, was killed whereas the others sustained non-life-threatening accidents.

Indian media retailers have printed numerous doable motives for the assault, every time citing police sources.

Among the doable motives are that Kumar and Dhankar’s relationship deteriorated after Dhankar refused to pay hire on an condominium he had leased from Kumar. This lead Kumar to evict Dhankar. And, allegedly, this result in Dhankar bad-mouthing Kumar. Kumar is accused of reacting to this disrespect by desirous to “teach Dhankar a lesson”.

It has additionally been floated that there was a love triangle involving an unnamed Ukrainian girl and members from each Kumar and Dhankar’s buddy teams. The late Dhankar has additionally been accused of making an attempt to poach wrestlers from Chhatrasal to hitch his new group.

Kumar’s arrest additionally prompted numerous tales alleging that he has ties to organized crime. One of these experiences claimed that Kumar as soon as owned a toll-booth operation in partnership with infamous gang chief Anil Bhati. The attendants working at these cubicles have been accused of theft, kidnapping and homicide.

It has additionally been alleged that the condominium Kumar leased to Dhankar was secured for Kumar by one other infamous gangster: Kala Jathedi (whose nephew was one of many buddies overwhelmed alongside Dhankar).

It was reported that Jathedi threatened Kumar’s life after the dying of Dhankar. However, Kumar reportedly acquired safety from yet one more well-known felony — Neeraj Bawana. Last 12 months Kumar was relocated to the identical jail as Bawana, who’s incarcerated on suspicion of a number of murders.

Before his fall from grace, Kumar was a preferred athlete and celeb in India. He is the one Indian to win two medals in a person sport on the Olympics. Kumar gained silver on the 2012 video games in London and a bronze on the 2008 video games in Beijing. Both instances he competed within the 66kg class for freestyle wrestling. He was the flag bearer for India’s Olympic group on the 2012 video games.

Kumar has additionally gained a World Championship, Asian Championship and a number of Commonwealth Games Championships. In 2009 he obtained the Khel Ratna Award, India’s highest sporting honour.