The mystery woman who gatecrashed into the Indian contingent’s march past at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics has turned out to be a Bangalore girl, Honey Madhura.
Honey’s father, Nagendra, owner of an export firm in Bangalore, says his daughter is in London as part of a dance ensemble for the Olympics.
Dressed in a red shirt and blue trousers, Honey was seen marching in front of the contingent, along with the flag-bearer Sushil Kumar who won a bronze medal in wrestling for India at the Beijing Games.
Nagendra said his daughter was practising Bharatanyam for many months with participants selected to perform during the Games.
There could be no security breach by her daughter as nobody can enter the stadium without security clearance, he said, apologising on his daughter’s behalf if her action had hurt the Indian contingent’s feelings.
In London, Games Organising Committee chairman Sir Sebastian Coe said they were “looking into” the incident, after the Indian contingent wrote to them, complaining about Honey’s aberrational presence with them during the march.
“I was told about it. She sort of made it into the Opening Ceremony. There is a very important point to take into consideration here. I don’t minimise the fact that she got in Opening Ceremony. We will have our own discussion about that,” Coe said at a press conference.
“She could not have got into the Olympic Park without having gone through our security protocols. They seem to have run away with the idea that she just walked of the street and onto the Opening Ceremony. We are looking into it. She should not have been there,” Coe said.
Honey’s father K Nagendra also claimed that his daughter was not an intruder and there was no security breach and also apologised for the controversial incident.
Enraged at the incident, the Indians wrote to the organisers Saturday night and Acting Chef de Mission Brig P K Muralidharan Raja said no response has come yet.
“We have submitted the letter expressing our strong resentment on the matter to the organisers last night. We are still waiting for their response,” Raja told PTI here.
A day after photos of the "mystery woman" appeared in newspapers and went cyber on social networking sites, her identity was revealed by an Indian newspaper.
The newspaper, quoting sources, said Honey’s friend from the college, spotted her and was baffled seeing her with the Indian contingent.
Honey has been living in London and before she marched with the Indian team, she had displayed her Olympic passes on her Facebook account.
But once her faux pas became known, she had deactivated her Facebook account.
The Indian contingent, however, was willing to wait for an official confirmation about the her identity.
“I am also aware of these reports. But I can't comment on newspaper reports. We want something from the organisers,” he said.
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