Page 49 - English Tehelka Issue 7 - April 15, 2018

Exclusive sports

Continuation of
corruption at JFI
ported despite being brought to the later pushed Arjuna door admission in medical and engi-
public’s notice by Judokas on many oc- neering colleges under the sports quota
casions. Contrary to the essence of the Awardee Judoka and for “hefty kickbacks”, while he sidelined Timeline of Judo per a source, Mukesh influenced the January 2011
sport, Judo in India couldn’t defend its currently Senior talented and deserving players for his scandal JFI body with money power to gain the Through an RTI Sushil Mehta obtained
caretaker bodies — Judo Federation of own advantage. A letter issued by the position. the information of Mukesh’s date of
India (JFI) and Sports Authority of India Intelligence Officer Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh June 1989 birth and copies of his forged sports
(SAI), from being vulnerable to a series (SIO) with Punjab (SAAP) in 2017, explicitly addressed the Mukesh Kumar was appointed to the July 2005 certificates.
of rackets under Mukesh Kumar, the “malpractices and high stake of corrup- position of Hostel Manager (Assistant Mukesh Kumar is again appointed as
former President of JFI. What is more Police, Yashpal tion” in the Judo fraternity and “unethi- Director) in SAI. To get the job, Mukesh the Secretary of Judo Federation of December 2011
shocking is that the bodies chose to ig- Solanki, to take up cal practices of fake certificates to the produced forged certificates and false India for the second term. This time, Mukesh took voluntary retirement from
nore the brewing criminalities, regard- undeserving students” which is not information regarding his sports too, it is without any approval from SAI to avoid being under the lens and
less of the fact that such incidents were the matter in 2014 possible without “collusion of certain achievements (copies of which are the SAI, while serving as the Hostel disclosure of age and copies of his forged
brought to their notice time and again. National Federation level elements.” published below). Manager. sports certificates.
During its investigation, Tehelka and file a PIL (Picture below)
came upon evidence that clearly points Third, Kumar holds the post of Gen- July 2001 August 2009 October 2013
to a host of irregularities by Kumar like the JFI Secretary for consecutive three eral Secretary in Judo Union of Asia Mukesh Kumar is appointed as the Again, for the third term, with the Mukesh contested the election for
issuing bogus certificates to fake play- terms (12 years), even when he was al- (JUA). He is accused of misappropriat- Secretary of JFI. He served in his help of bribes, Mukesh is elected to the President’s office and became the
ers for kickbacks; submission of fake ready serving at SAI and continued ing foreign funds received from the JUA position for four years while the post of Secretary, JFI. No permission President of JFI without fulfilling the
sports documents by Kumar to acquire to do so until August 4, 2013. It is to be to run the office of its General Secretary. simultaneously working at SAI. As taken from the SAI prior to election. eligibility criteria.
jobs in SAI; misappropriation of foreign noted that Kumar never sought prior Instead of spending the specific funds
funds, etc. Copies of documents point- approval from SAI before contesting of JUA, Kumar went on misusing the
ing to the evidence are in possession of for the mentioned post in JFI, which is funds, assets, employees and even the
Tehelka. mandatory as per the Sports Code for accommodation of JFI for running the ♦ Letter of permission from SAI for hold- favour of forged documents, but the deal was no action taken by SAI even after the
office bearers. office of General Secretary, JUA, while ing post of Secretary at JFI, did not turn out as promised. A betrayed matter was reported.
Beginning of Judo scandal Next, as per a petition filed in Delhi the funds of JUA were filling his pocket. ♦ Authenticity of State or National level Sushil then decided to spill the beans In 2015, the High Court of Delhi asked
Kumar is known to manipulate the High Court, Kumar was allegedly in- It was the coach and Judoka, Sushil sports certificates and expose the fake certificate scandal of JFI to advise Mukesh Kumar to demit
system right from the beginning of volved in providing fake sports certifi- Mehta, who first filed a complaint to the After learning about the RTI, Kumar Mukesh through an RTI. from the post of President immediately,
his career in sports administration. He cates to numerous disqualified Judokas Sports Authority of India in 2010 under immediately opted for voluntary retire- The continuation of corruption at JFI but there was no action until Feb 2018.
submitted forged sports certificates and non-meritorious students for back- the RTI Act, 2005, seeking information ment from SAI to avoid any legal action later pushed Arjuna Awardee, Judoka If all that was not enough, as per the
and provided wrong informa- of Mukesh on: against him. He, however, continued to and currently Senior Intelligence Offic- petition, Kumar, once again took lakhs
tion about his age to join SAI ♦ Age of Mukesh as per Higher serve at JFI till the first week of Feb, 2018. er (SIO) with the Punjab Police, Yashpal of rupees from the Judokas and partici-
as Hostel Manager in 1989 and Secondary Board Examination Mehta, in his RTI, also questioned Solanki, to take up the matter in 2014 and pants with the promise of sending them
later for the post of Director. He Certificate, Kumar’s victory in the North Zone Judo file a PIL to bring the never-spoken-of to Commonwealth Championship 2016,
even bribed his way to become ♦ Year of graduation, Championship (55 kgs), Delhi, 1980, as the Judo fake certificate racket to light. which didn’t happen. The money of the
former claimed that it was he who was “Being a sportsman and Judoka my- Judokas was returned only after numer-
the real winner of the tournament. self, I cannot tolerate the injustice done ous complaints were filed against him.
to the true spirit of the talented sports- While Kumar remained silent on the
Mukesh-Sushil deal men of my country. It takes blood and matter despite repeated attempts by Te-
Sushil Mehta backed out of the mat - sweat of sportsmen to earn pride and re- helka to reach him, we were finally able
ter for some unknown reasons. It is spect at various global sports platforms. to speak to him through his wife’s mobile
believed that he had stepped aside The matter of bogus sports certificates number. On being asked about the bogus
for his alleged involvement in the to the undeserving ones is a disregard sports certificates, Kumar said, “It is a lie.
fake certificate racket. An insider told to our country and its sportsmen. This Andhra Pradesh sports authority provid-
Tehelka that it was Mehta who had ap- is a high-level corruption case where ed us the list of the winners and partici-
parently helped Kumar in arranging all the higher authorities in Judo sports are pants, after which we only awarded the
the forged documents for the latter’s job hand-in-glove,” Yashpal told Tehelka. certificates to them.”
at SAI. Let’s have a look at the timeline above Tehelka further asked him whether he
Another revelation is that the sports to know how the bogus Judo certificates then thinks that the bogus sports certifi-
certificates of Kumar are actually of case unfolded. cates case is a conspiracy against him, to
Judoka Sushil Mehta, which was dupli- In 2014, for the first time, Petitioner which he replied, “I don’t want to com-
cated with cognizance of the latter for Yashpal reported the matter of forged ment.” It is impossible to have carried out
submission at SAI, as claimed by a source documents to the General Secretary, JFI, the scandal without the support of of-
to Tehelka. Man Mohan Jaiswal after receiving infor- ficials from the fraternity of JFI and SAI,
It is alleged that a deal was struck be- mation from the then government ob- said a source.
tween the two, Mukesh and Sushil, where server Cawas Billimoria (through email).
the former promised a job to the latter in The email clearly mentioned that there letters@tehelka.com

Tehelka / 15 april 2018 00 www.Tehelka.com Tehelka / 15 april 2018 49 www.Tehelka.com

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