Harassment of Panposh sports hostel girls; probe report today

Reported by Malay Ray
Rourkela, Sep  10:

Three officials of  the  Sports Department of Odisha government, who had come here for two days to probe into the
allegation of  torture and harassment by 29 athletes of  State Sport Hostel (SSH)  which had led them to leave the hostel  abruptly on Sunday, conducted  a final  enquiry on Wednesday.

Soon after  the  incident, the Odisha Government had ordered a probe into allegations  by 29 female  athletes.  The probe team led by the Assistant Director of  Sports Department conducted the enquiry on Tuesday and Wednesday and will submit its report to Commissioner(Sports) at Bhubaneswar on Thursday.

Sources sai, 29  inmates of  State  Sports Hostel (SSH), Panposh hockey coaching center owned by state government had  left the hostel on Sunday without informing the hostel authorities, allegedly after misbehavior by the hostel caretaker. The incident had come to fore on Monday.

Acting promptly on the issue, the district administration had ensured the return of all inmates to the hostel here on Monday.

On  Tuesday  afternoon,  Akhila Bihari Das, Asst.Director(Sports), Janardan Sahoo, Section Officer(Sports),  Sunita Mohanty, Kabadi Coach of  Sports  Department  alongwith  Sundargarh  Sports  Officer  Tej Kumar  Xess  had  reached  at  State Sports  Hostel, Panposh and conducted an enquiry.

The  enquiry  team,  alongwith  District  Sports  Officer Tej Kumar  Xess, talked  to  all  29 inmates of  hostel  on Tuesday and all of them complained  against  the caretaker  Ambika  Bhoi. Since  Bhoi  had  left  the hostel since the date of  the incident , she  was called from  her  home at Bonei area and on  Wednesday.

After  she reached SSH, she was interrogated  by the  enquiry team.

“After  interrogating  caretaker  Ambika  Bhoi, we  have come  to know that  the grievance of  all 29 inmates against caretaker Ambika Bhoi is  genuine. Ambika Bhoi was not  taking  care of  girl inmates; rather  she  used to tell them to do her (Ambika Bhoi)) personal  work,” said Das.”We will submit  our  finding report to the Commissioner (Sports) on Thursday,” he  added.