NEW DELHI, June 4: The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) on Thursday suspended five wrestlers, including U20 Asian Championship trails winner Deepanshu, for four years after their birth certificates were found to be fake during a verification exercise in its crackdown on age fraud in the sport.
Deepanshu, who had won the men’s freestyle 65kg event on Wednesday, has been replaced by Pawan Balaji Dhayagude in the squad for the championship, starting June 27 in Pattaya, Thailand.The other suspended wrestlers are Tanuj Antil, Baljot Singh and Nikhil Dalal and Saket Drall, who reached the final of the 86kg trials. He was removed from the final and was replaced by Sahil Dalal, who eventually grabbed the place in the Indian team.In an order issued by WFI president Sanjay Kumar Singh, the federation said it had taken a “very serious view” of wrestlers submitting forged birth certificates to gain eligibility for participation in National Wrestling Championships.WFI said discrepancies in birth certificates had surfaced in several cases in recent months, leading to suspensions and widespread reporting in print, electronic and social media.“Despite the action already taken, some wrestlers allegedly continued attempting to compete in national events by submitting alternative or fabricated documents,” WFI said in its notice.
The federation said verification conducted with the Registrar (Birth and Death), Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh, confirmed that the birth certificates submitted by the five wrestlers were not genuine and that corresponding records could not be traced in official registers.(PTI)
