Delhi Soccer Association Vice-Prez Accused Of Sexual Harassment

Delhi Soccer Association vice-president Nagendra Singh is facing allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct. Reports of financial mismanagement have also come across. This has seriously affected the credibility of association president Subhash Chopra’s long-serving team.

The issue has reached top authorities like Delhi Commission for Women, sports ministry, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The All India Football Federation has refused to intervene, saying “it was an internal matter of the state association”.

“How can you remove an elected member from the executive committee just because there are some allegations against him? When we got to know about the complaints, we immediately removed him from the women’s committee. What more do you want?” DSA president Chopra told Hindustan Times.

Earlier in 2010, a few women footballers had complained against Singh but the media never picked it up until recently.

“I was harassed because I complained about Nagendra Singh,” she wrote in the letter, which also alleged that coach Paritosh Kumar Sharma too tried to molest girls. “I was mentally shattered and also thought of committing suicide.”

“If the girls have so many issues, why don’t they register a police complaint? We have asked them to do so but if they do not wish to, then what can we do?” said Chopra.

“We are from middle-class families. All this will entangle us into legal issues,” a player (name withheld) told Hindustan Times. “The people we complained against are very powerful. It is not easy for us to go to the police and then proceed with legal cases,” she added.

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Even the coach isn’t free of stains of harassment allegations. A young girl who was looking to enter state selection faced harassment and humiliated. But she did not get any justice from either the DSA president’s desk or from the women’s selection committee.

“I was harassed because I complained about Nagendra Singh,” she wrote in the letter, which also alleged that coach Paritosh Kumar Sharma too tried to molest girls. “It shattered me mentally and I also thought of committing suicide.”

Players feel mentally disturbed after such treatment from the DSA and claim that it affects their performance. However, Singh alleges that these charges against him are mere ‘campaign’ to keep him out of DSA.

Currently, Singh is chairman of the sub-junior boys’ selection committee.

Picture credit- Youtube