Union Minister of Sports, Youth Affairs and Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur. File
| Photo Credit: PTI
Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur said that his Ministry has taken note of an alleged physical assault on women footballers by an official during the ongoing Indian Women’s League.
Palak Verma and Ritika Thakur, two players of Khad FC, accused Deepak Sharma, the general secretary of Himachal Pradesh Football Association, of physical assault on March 28. Reacting to the news, the Union Minister posted on X, “The Ministry of Sports has taken a serious note of an alleged physical assault upon women footballers by an official during the ongoing Indian Women’s League in Goa.”
He said that the safety and security of players was the top priority. “All India Football Federation (AIFF) has been directed to take quick action and ensure the safety and security of our footballers. The Ministry has further directed AIFF to take strong legal action and inform the Ministry about actions taken. The safety and security of players are our utmost priority,” he said in the tweet.
Verma and Thakur were allegedly assaulted by Sharma, who was in a drunken state, on Thursday night (March 28) in Goa. The players filed a complaint with the AIFF the next day, requesting immediate action as they were ‘scared for their lives’.
Himachal Pradesh’s Khad FC is playing in the inaugural edition of Indian Women’s League 2. Verma has led the team in two of its three matches so far.
The complaint, whose copy Sportstar has read, says, “As the dinner was over, we were boiling eggs as we didn’t get dinner. Mr. Deepak Sharma got offended and stormed into our room and slapped me (Palak) and Ritika and assaulted us physically. From the first day, he used to be in an inebriated (drunken) state.”
Sharma is an executive committee member of the AIFF, the deputy chairperson of the competition committee and as per the federation’s website, he’s also the chairperson of the federation’s infrastructure committee.
The incident became public on March 29 and the match commissioner, Sujesh Rajan, took cognizance of the issue and reached out to the Goa Football Association, the host federation, for quick action. Jonathan D’Sousa, the vice president of GFA, told Sportstar, that the General Secretary and the Match Commissioner met the girls and did a preliminary investigation. They forwarded their report to the AIFF.
The GFA also filed a complaint at the Mapusa police station within hours. “As an organizer and as part of the GFA, we felt that we should at least inform the police that so and so incident has happened. Now, the law has to follow this process,” D’Sousa said.