Antim Panghal of India in action with Zeynep Yetgil of Turkey.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
In a major embarrassment for India, Antim Panghal and her sister are facing deportation from Paris after the young wrestler handed over her official accreditation to her younger sibling for collecting her personal belongings from the Games Village and was caught by security.
Panghal crashed out of the Paris Olympics after losing her opening bout in the women’s 53kg and went to the hotel, where her designated coach Bhagat Singh and actual coach Vikas, who is also her coach, were put up.
Antim asked her sister to go to the Games Village and collect her belongings. While her sister managed to enter the Village, she was caught by the security officer while leaving.
She was taken to a local police station to record her statement and the 19-year-old junior world champion Antim was also called by the police to record her statement.
If that was not enough, Antim’s personal support staff — Vikas and Bhagat — have allegedly travelled in an inebriated state in a cab and refused to pay the fare after which the driver called the cops.
“We are fighting fire as of now,” said an IOA source.
“We have a bad situation at hand, our security officer is dealing with the situation. They might be deported, let’s see,” the official source added.