Bathinda: In a tragic incident, a teenaged junior national boxing champion was found dead in a field in Talwandi Sabo area of Bathinda.
According to police, drugs overdose was the cause of the 19-year-old Kuldeep Singh’s death.
Kuldeep left home on Wednesday morning to go for practice session. However, it emerged later that he didn’t turn up at the stadium. His body was found in a field near a water channel in the evening.
Eyewitnesses said Kuldeep’s mobile was lying near his lifeless body. A syringe was also found at the spot.
Kuldeep, who won gold medals in U-17 and U-19 National boxing championships, bagged a medal in the recent Khelo India Games, as well as silver in the junior National boxing championship, besides several medals in other national events.
“He (Kuldeep) was a bright kid… We had the knowledge that he had been using narcotics in the past. We had intervened at that time and counselled him. He started coming to the stadium for practice twice a day after that,” Kuldeep’s coach Hardeep Singh said.
“However, he may have come in contact with his old suppliers and went missing on Wednesday morning. His body was recovered in the evening. The menace of drugs is consuming the youths of Punjab. The peddlers should be arrested and handed the strictest punishment,” the coach added.
Police received a complaint from Kuldeep’s father Pritam Singh, following which an FIR was lodged at Talwandi Sabo police station.
The FIR named one Khushdeep Singh of Talwandi Sabo, and 4-5 unknown people, against whom charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder have been pressed.
