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The decision was taken by Hockey India’s four-member committee after national team player Th Ranjitha Devi accused the entire backroom staff of pressurising her and other team members of the team for sexual favours.
Ranjitha is part of the Commonwealth Games probables who had graduated to the women’s team after impressive performances at the junior level and last played for India in March. Kaushik and Ranjitha, along with other support staff members, have been asked to appear before the committee on Wednesday.
Rajeev Mehta, one of the members of the inquiry committee and a Hockey India official, confirmed the developments.
“These are serious charges made by Ranjitha who is a national player. We are looking into it and have already sacked the videographer. Since he is a SAI official, we have also sent our recommendation to SAI for them to take any action,” Mehta told The Indian Express.
Sudarshan Pathak of Hockey Delhi, another member of the committee, confirmed that they were looking into the allegations but refused to divulge details. The other two members of the committee, former national players Ajitpal Singh and Zafar Iqbal, and top HI officials declined comment. The women team’s support staff against whom the allegations have also been made too refused to speak on the issue.
The official complaint mentions that members of the support staff were in the habit of getting “escorts” to team hotels on official tours abroad and, at times, even missed team meetings because of the “indulgences”. Ranjitha alleged that she was dropped from the team because she refused to give in to wishes of officials.
“Kaushik has been with the team for more than a decade now and such allegations have never surfaced against him, so we are taking it very seriously. Till a final decision is taken, he will not travel with the team,” Mehta said.
The Indian team is to leave for the 1st Asian Champions Trophy which is being held from July 27 to July 31 in Busan, Korea.
While Kaushik was not available for comments, sources close to him said that he had decided to stay away from team training till the matter was resolved.
“Though he is deeply attached to women’s hockey, he has decided to not only stay away from training but also request Hockey India to discontinue his services. After almost 15 spotless years with the national team, he has decided he doesn’t deserve this,” said a close associate of Kaushik.
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Indian women are strong and self reliant. They are excelling in all fields. This is the time to provide women security officers and support staff whenever any women athlete or sports team is on tour with in or outside the country. In case the presence of male staff/coach is necessary, send that person's wife also on tour. Now the priority action needed is to investigate & punish the guilty with out dragging on the case for an unknown future and in the meantime defame the complainant sportswomen.
Today why can we not have women backroom staff accompanying women's teams? It is time we graduated to think that women can take care of themselves and do not have to be looked after by men. But do severely punish the guilty and the observation is not to condone the men who committed the offence of seeking sexual favours.
is how one can address these officials as....no doubt the accused will refute allegations & may even go to lengths to discredit the complainant. A case of harassment needs to be initiated & the officials shamed in public...do those in high places have the aame mindset?
Women sports in India is littered with such instances, only nobody talks about it. This one player has dared to speak up now watch how she is hounded.
Allow the officials to travel with their wives. This will be a nice way to add more incentives to the job as well as the wives will guard against "off sides" committed by officials. Or have a female official always accompanying the women team. On a more serious note, sports involving Indian women is run by medieval standards.