National shooting coach Ankush Bharadwaj has been suspended by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), and a show-cause notice has been issued to him following sexual assault allegations made by a 17-year-old national-level shooter, as per NRAI assistant secretary Rajiv Bhatia.
The national-level female shooter alleged that Bharadwaj sexually assaulted her at a hotel in Surajkund, Faridabad, during a national championship in December last year.
Bharadwaj has been booked by the Haryana Police following an official complaint from the victim’s family. According to the FIR filed in Faridabad, the coach is accused of sexually assaulting the national-level shooter and threatening to ruin her career.
The incident allegedly took place on December 16 while she was participating in a national-level shooting competition at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in Tughlakabad, South Delhi.
Police confirmed that a First Information Report (FIR) has been registered based on the complaint from the girl’s mother. Efforts are currently underway to obtain CCTV footage from the hotel and gather statements from witnesses connected to the case.
According to the complaint, a senior police officer stated that a case was registered on Tuesday at the Women’s Police Station in NIT Faridabad under Section 6 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and Section 351(2) of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita (BNS), since the athlete is a minor.
The FIR notes that after the match, the coach allegedly asked the shooter to meet him in the lobby of the Surajkund Hotel in Faridabad, where he was staying, to discuss her performance. Upon arriving, she was pressured to go to the coach’s room for a more detailed discussion. It is alleged that in the hotel room, he sexually assaulted her and threatened to ruin her career and harm her family if she revealed the incident.