Kolkata, March 22 (IANS) Arjuna awardee table tennis player and Olympian Soumyajit Ghosh was booked on Thursday for raping a teenager.
Ghosh, also India’s youngest national table tennis champion, however refuted the allegation and said he will legally approach the case.
The FIR was lodged after a 18-year-old girl filed a police complaint in North 24 Parganas district’s Barasat women police station, accusing Ghosh of raping her at her residence in April 2015 on a false promise of marriage.
The woman also claimed to have been in contact with Ghosh for the last three years when she was a minor and said she did not get any positive response from the table tennis player about their marriage.
Ghosh has been booked on the charges of rape (Indian Penal Code’s Section 376), cheating (IPC 417), causing miscarriage without woman’s consent (IPC 313) and under sections of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
“The allegations are baseless. I will move court,” Ghosh, who is currently in Germany playing in the German Open, told a local news channel over the phone.
Ghosh had represented India at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. He is scheduled to represent India in the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Australia’s Gold Coast.