Wrestler Naveen Rana attacked by Sushil Kumar's supporters in Delhi

Wrestler Naveen Rana attacked by Sushil Kumar's supporters in Delhi

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The elder brother of well-known wrestler Parveen Rana, Naveen, was allegedly thrashed by Sushil Kumar’s supporters inside the warm-up arena of the KD Jadhav wrestling hall of the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi. Later, both players’ supporters were also known to be involved in the clash.

Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) had organized selection trials in six men's freestyle and 10 Greco-Roman weight categories for the 2018 Commonwealth Games on Friday.

Sushil Kumar booked his place to represent the country in the 74kg category at the Gold Coast Games, following his 7-3 win over Parveen in the semifinal bout, before he barely managed to edge past another grappler Jitender 4-3 in a keenly-contested final round. The incident happened minutes after Sushil’s win.

A group of supporters, allegedly supporting Sushil, entered the warm-up hall adjacent to the main wrestling arena, and brutally started punching Rana’s group including his brother Naveen, who alleged that Parveen had hit Sushil on the head and even bit him on the arm during the semifinal bout. Once Naveen fell, the group disappeared from the spot. 

"It might be his (Parveen's) tactics to stop me from performing well by biting me. All this is part of sports," Sushil told media as quoted by TOI.

"But whatever happened was wrong and I condemn it. There is no place for such incidents in our wrestling. When I came off the mat, I blessed both Parveen and Jitender. They also touched my feet as a mark of respect. There was mutual respect after the fight ended," he added.

WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh admitted that although he heard about the incident, he had not received any complaint.

“Someone told me Praveen’s brother got hurt. But nothing happened inside the playing area. If someone got beaten up outside, the police will deal with it,” he said as quoted by Hindustan Times.

It's been learned that the supporters of Sushil and Parveen have lodged formal complaints against each other at the I P Extension police station. 

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