Murder chargesheet: ‘Sushil Kumar felt betrayed by juniors, wanted to establish his supremacy’

“Sushil Kumar was considered a guru by all wrestlers getting training in Chhatrasal Stadium”, but “murmurs” that he was scared of the two tenants occupying his wife’s flat made him feel “betrayed and, thus, he nursed a deep grudge for loss of respect in the eyes of his students”.

The statement is part of the Delhi Police chargesheet filed in the murder of 27-year-old junior wrestler, Sagar Dhankar, at Chhatrasal Stadium in May. It accuses Sushil of being the kingpin of this conspiracy, and alleges that he called associates from Delhi and Haryana with firearms.

According to the chargesheet, on December 10, 2019, Sushil purchased a flat for Rs 90 lakh in his wife’s name at Model Town, which was given on rent to Dhankar and one Bhagat for Rs 40,000 per month. Two-and-a-half months later, the two men got into a parking dispute with locals and Sushil asked them to vacate, the chargesheet states.

As per the chargesheet, Sushil allegedly sent two men — Ajay and Raghubir, both accused in this case — to convince them to leave. It was during this visit that they found one Jaibhagwan alias Sonu also living there.

As per police, at one point, Sonu told Sushil’s associates that if he “wants to get his flat vacated, he should talk to him personally”.
“Sushil Kumar is an Olympian, and he was well known and respected in the country. This act on the part of Sonu and Sagar was taken by him as a challenge to his authority and hurt his ego badly. He felt a loss of respect,” the chargesheet states.

While a compromise was reached in March-April 2021, “relations between Sushil, and Sagar and Sonu became bitter,” it alleges, adding: “Tensions rose as there were murmurs in the stadium that Sushil… despite being such a big wrestler/name, was scared of Sagar and Jaibhagwan… Accused Sushil… had suspicion that some of the trainee wrestlers of Chhatrasal stadium were giving information about his movements to Sagar and Jaibhagwan… which enraged him. He started planning to strike them hard to teach them a lesson and re-establish his supremacy.”

Police alleged that right after this, Sushil threw out three wrestlers from Chhatrasal stadium on the suspicion that they were passing information.

“He decided to settle the matter and to stamp his authority through muscle power… When he realised some of his own students/trainees were passing information about him… he felt betrayed and thus nursed a deep grudge against Sonu and Sagar for loss of respect in the eyes of his students,” the chargesheet alleges.

Police have chargesheeted 13 persons, including Sushil, under IPC sections 302 (punishment for murder) 307 (attempt to murder), 147 (punishment for rioting), and 120 (B) criminal conspiracy among other sections. There are 155 prosecution witnesses in this case.

Sushil’s lawyer Pradeep Rana told The Indian Express, “We have come to know that the chargesheet has been filed in court. However, we have not been supplied a copy… We will chalk out a defence strategy only after going through it, along with statements of witnesses. We are confident that it will not hold ground in the court of law as Sushil is not involved in the offence as alleged by the investigating agency.”
Police have listed three snapshots as evidence, taken from a one-minute video extracted from the phone of an accused, Prince.

Police alleged that in the first photo, Sushil is seen carrying a stick in his hand, and in the second and third photos, he is seen beating Sonu with a stick and holding Bhagat’s hand.

The video’s location has been identified as the basketball area near the stadium’s parking lot, as per police.

Police also affixed observations made by forensic assistants, who claimed that Sushil was “very adamant to disclose any information pertaining to the incident”, “showed no signs of remorse or guilt”, “was extremely ego-centric and he behaved as he thought that he is above the law”, and “was hostile and extremely conceited about his reputation and name”.