New Delhi, March 22: India’s youngest paddler, Table tennis star – Soumyajit Ghosh, who was the youngest player to qualify for London Olympics 2012 and then the youngest ever paddler to become National champion at 19, is in serious trouble after having been accused and then booked for rape. The accuser in this case is an 18 year old girl whose name has not been made public.

Soumyajit Ghosh is most likely to be suspended and dropped from India’s Commonwealth Games contingent heading for Gold Coast Australia, after being accused of rape, a charge that was denied by the former national champion, who claimed his accuser has been blackmailing him.

Sanil Shetty, who has been in the reserves, will replace Soumyajit in Commonwealth Games Indian contingent – visiting Gold Coast from April 4 to April 15.

A complaint has been lodged and an FIR has been registered with the police in Barasat, West Bengal. Soumyajit, the 24-year-old Arjuna awardee has been booked under the IPC sections for rape, criminal conspiracy, causing miscarriage without the woman’s consent, and cheating.

The 18-year-old has accused Ghosh of raping her under the false pretext of marriage. The report first appeared in a Bengali newspaper Ebela. The report added that Ghosh and the girl first interacted on social media in 2014 before getting into a relationship.

Ghosh, has been training in Germany for the April Gold Coast games.

“The charges are very serious against Ghosh. I have called an executive committee meeting tomorrow. In my opinion, we have no option but to suspend him pending further investigations,” said Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) secretary MP Singh.

 

Ghosh denies the charges

Ghosh denied the allegations, saying the accuser has been blackmailing him after their relationship ended. “Whatever she is saying is false as I haven’t done anything wrong, we were together but then I wanted to focus on my career so I told her ‘it is very difficult to be with you’,” Ghosh said.

“After I broke things off with her, she started blackmailing me, my family and my friend circle. From the last one-and-a-half years, she has been trying to threaten and blackmail us”, he added.

Ghosh said the girl had been blackmailing him for money and the allegations were a ploy to ruin his career.

Raj Kumar

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