New Delhi: The Supreme Court, on Wednesday, cancelled the bail of two-time Olympic medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar, accused of the murder of junior national wrestling champion Sagar Dhankar.
Kumar had been granted bail by the Delhi High Court on March 4. Dhankhar’s father moved an appeal against this order in the Supreme Court. The matter came up for hearing before the bench of Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra, which set aside the High Court order and directed Kumar to surrender within a week.
Kumar, along with several others, is accused of assaulting Dhankar and his two friends, Sonu and Amit Kumar, in the parking lot of Delhi’s Chhatrasal Stadium on May 4, 2021, allegedly over a property dispute.
The victim, a 23-year-old wrestler from Haryana’s Rohtak, succumbed to injuries sustained in the assault, while his two companions were left injured. According to the post-mortem report, Dhankar died of cerebral damage caused by blunt force trauma.
Kumar evaded arrest for 18 days by moving across Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Haryana. Delhi Police finally apprehended him in the Mundka area when he arrived to collect cash, travelling on a scooty borrowed from a national-level athlete.
Following his arrest on May 23, 2021, the Olympian was suspended from his job in the Indian Railways and sent to judicial custody, where he remained before obtaining bail.
In October 2022, a Delhi trial court framed charges against Kumar and 17 co-accused under multiple provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including murder, rioting, criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, robbery, and offences under the Arms Act.
The Delhi Police charge sheet describes Kumar as the “kingpin” of the conspiracy, alleging that he orchestrated the attack to reassert his influence in the wrestling community after rumours of his waning clout hurt his ego. Kumar denied these allegations.
In his bail plea before the high court, Kumar argued that he had already spent three and a half years in jail and that the trial was unlikely to conclude soon, given that only 31 of the 222 prosecution witnesses had been examined so far. The high court, taking note of the prolonged incarceration and slow pace of the trial, had granted him bail.
Kumar had won a bronze medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and a silver at the 2012 London Games.
