New Delhi, July 24 (IANS) Hockey India (HI) Saturday told the government that it will not need the services of women’s hockey coach M.K Kaushik in future.
HI secretary general Narinder Batra said he has submitted the report of the internal probe committee, which looked into the allegations of sexual harassment against Kaushik, to the Sports Authority of India (SAI), the sports ministry and has also marked a copy to the police commissioner.
Batra said they do not want to avail the services of Kaushik as also videographer Basavraja, who has been suspended after photos of him with a prostitute surfaced in the media.
‘We have given our recommendations and since it is a serious issue we have also given a copy to the police commissioner. We have said that HI in future will not avail the services of M.K. Kaushik and Basavraja.
‘HI feels that the written version of Ranjitha Devi was highly credible and it had some specific charges. But we cannot broaden the scope of our investigation and we do not like the matter to end here. It should reach its logical conclusion. So we have given our recommendations and forwarded a copy to police,’ Batra said.
Batra said they cannot recommend any action against Kaushik as it was not under the purview of the probe panel which did the preliminary inquiry.
‘The matter need to be enquired urgently so that such issues do not happen in future. We did the preliminary inquiry and handed over our report to the government, SAI and we have marked a copy to police to avoid any delay. Now it is for the government of India to take it forward.’
Batra said the committee finalised its report after talking to various people including the team captain.
‘We have spoken to the captain and she said the team stands by its view. There was no dissent among the players.’
Kaushik resigned Wednesday, saying his position has become untenable after the charges levelled by Ranjitha Devi, who had the support of 31 girls in the camp.
