A member of India’s shooting coaching staff, Ankush Bhardwaj, has been suspended by the NRAI (National Rifles Association of India) on charges of sexually assaulting a minor shooter last month.
The NRAI also confirmed that an FIR has been filed against Bhardwaj in Faridabad, where the accused has been booked under Section 6 of POCSO Act (aggravated sexual assault), and Section 351(2) of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (criminal intimidation).
“NRAI has suspended him and we will issue a show-cause notice,” said NRAI secretary Rajiv Bhatia, adding that Bhardwaj, a resident of Mohali, has been suspended on moral grounds and will now have to prove himself innocent.
“Till the inquiry is not completed, he will not be associated with any coaching activity,” Bhatia said.
The alleged assault took place in Surajkund, as per the FIR filed by the victim, who said she was targetted last month during the National Championships at the Karni Singh Range.
The girl, 17, who had been training with Bhardwaj since August last year, said that Bhardwaj used to call her for training at venues such as Mohali, Patiala, Dehradun and Delhi, but she would always return home the same day.
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However, on the day of the incident, the victim said she went to the Karni Singh Range unaccompanied in a taxi to compete in the Nationals. When she was about to leave for her home after the competition, she said the coach asked her to stay back with the pretext of “analysing” her performance.
She stated that the coach first requested her to meet him in the lobby of a hotel in the Surajkund area of Faridabad, but later allegedly coerced her into coming up to his room, claiming a more focused discussion was required.
“The coach asked me to come to the elevator area. When I went there, he asked me to go to a room that he had booked to discuss the match,” she said.
In the room on the third floor, when the victim requested that she be allowed to return home after having discussed the match, the coach allegedly told her that he would “crack her back”, referring to a physiotherapy technique of post-competition recovery.
“I immediately refused. Then sir forcibly made me lie face down and sexually assaulted me and when I opposed, he threatened me,” the victim stated in the FIR.
She adds in the FIR that Bhardwaj threatened her against disclosing the incident to anyone, failing which he would sabotage her professional career.
“I got really scared after the incident and did not tell anyone,” she stated, adding that she eventually told her mother after being prodded upon her mother noticing a change in her demeanour following the incident.
A senior police officer said that a probe is underway.
Bhardwaj, a former pistol shooter, had served a doping ban in 2010 for the use of a beta-blocker during his competitive days. Beta-blockers are banned for athletes engaged in disciplines like shooting, archery and billiards as they help reduce heart rate, muscle tremors, and anxiety.
NRAI had also recommended Bhardwaj for a place in the 37-strong coaching team after the Paris Olympics in 2024.
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