Hockey Olympic medallist booked for sexually assaulting minor

Bengaluru: Jnanabharathi police in western Bengaluru have booked hockey player Varun Kumar for sexually assaulting a woman when she was a minor.

The FIR was registered on Monday.

The 21-year-old woman, who was 17 when the alleged sexual assault first occurred in 2019, claimed that Kumar had intercourse with her multiple times in the last five years on the pretext of marriage.

A defender, Kumar, 28, was part of the Indian hockey team that won bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He has 141 caps for the national team and scored 40 goals so far. He was conferred the Arjuna Award in 2021.

According to the woman, Kumar first contacted her on Instagram in 2018 when she was being trained at the Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) coaching centre in Jnanabharathi, the FIR noted. She claimed that Kumar was at the SAI’s national camp for hockey players at the time.

She alleged that despite Kumar’s constant messages, she did not respond. She claimed that Kumar knew of her being a trainee at the SAI and sent his friends to get acquainted with her, but she stayed away. Kumar allegedly kept messaging her, saying “he loved her” and “would die without her”.

After his friends contacted her and repeatedly told her that Kumar was in love with her, she agreed to meet him, the FIR noted.

“When I met him once, he tried to force me to get married,” the woman alleged in her complaint. “I refused. But then he told me that he would convince my family and till then we would remain lovers. I agreed.”

In July 2019, after having dinner at a hotel, Kumar took her to a room on the pretext of having a conversation as it would be difficult to talk at the camp.

He had intercourse with her despite her refusal and being a minor, the FIR noted.

“As he had promised me, I believed him and loved him for five years,” she said. “During this period, he repeatedly had sexual intercourse with me. When my father died a year ago, Kumar visited me, consoled me. But then, he stopped responding to my calls.”

She alleged that Kumar also threatened to leak her photographs on social media if she continued to ask him to marry her.

The hockey player was booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including rape, and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.

Police begin investigation

“Special teams have been formed. Since the suspect was not found to be in Karnataka, they will leave either Tuesday evening or on Wednesday morning,” a senior police officer said.