Former India pacer Bhandari assaulted at Delhi team training\, hospitalised

Former India pacer Bhandari assaulted at Delhi team training, hospitalised

Press Trust of India  |  New Delhi 

Former pacer Amit Bhandari, who is chairman of the DDCA senior selection committee, was on Monday assaulted by a group of unidentified men during the senior team's training at the St Stephen's ground.

Bhandari sustained and was taken to at Civil Lines by his colleague The goons fled before the cops could reach the spot.

"We are looking into the matter and a case will be registered after recording the statement of the victim," Nupur Prasad, of Police (north) said.

& Districts Association (DDCA) told that guilty will not be spared.

"We are trying to procure all details of the incident. As far as I have come to know, it is regarding one disgruntled player, who didn't make it to the probables list for the National U-23 tournament.

"The SHO from the local police station has reached the Stephen's ground and I have personally spoken to the Police The guilty will not go unpunished. I promise exemplary action against whoever is found involved in this misdeed. We will register an FIR," Sharma said.

Sharma, who went to meet Bhandari at the hospital said: "He is very shaken and it is natural. The doctors have advised that he should be kept under observation for 24 hours as a precautionary measure."

"The goons were pressurising him to select a player, who had failed to get into the U-23 team on merit. Amit claimed that the one man also threatened him with a revolver."

Delhi's narrated the incident.

"I was having my meal along with a colleague inside the tent and Bhandari along with other was watching the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy probables play a trial match.

"A couple of men first came and went up to Bhandari. There were heated exchanges between Bhandari and the two men. They left and before we could gather our thoughts, suddenly some 15 men armed with sticks, rods and cycle chains came charging," Saini said.

"When the other senior team players attending the trials along with us rushed to save Bhandari, they started threatening us and one of them said, "Don't get into this or else we will shoot you."

"They attacked Bhandari with sticks and rods and he sustained head injury," the former Delhi seamer added.

When asked who could be behind the attack, Saini said, "I was not there when these two guys came and spoke with Bhandari. He is obviously rattled and once he gives his statement to the police, we will get to know more."

Delhi has always been mired in corruption charges and allegations of dubious selections at the various age-group levels have also surfaced time and again.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

First Published: Mon, February 11 2019. 16:25 IST