Who is Sandeep Singh, former hockey player and minister accused of sexual harassment?

In a statement he gave to ANI, Singh dismissed the allegations and informed that he has handed over the responsibility of the Sports department to the Haryana Chief Minister.

Hyderabad: A case of sexual harassment was registered against the former skipper of the Indian Hockey team and Haryana sports minister Sandeep Singh. A junior coach in her complaint registered at Chandigarh’s Sector 26 police station on Saturday night said that Singh harassed her multiple times.

In a statement he gave to ANI, Singh dismissed the allegations and informed that he has handed over the responsibility of the Sports department to the Haryana Chief Minister.

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“There is an attempt to spoil my image. I hope there will be a thorough investigation into the false allegations levelled against me. I hand over the responsibility of the Sports department to the CM until the report of the investigation comes out,” he said.

The recipient of the Arjuna Award is one of the prominent faces of hockey in the country. He debuted in 2004 and was made captain of the team in January 2009. The penalty corner specialist of the team has earned himself the nickname ‘Flicker Singh’.

He also represented India in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and was the highest scorer of the Olympic qualifiers tournament by scoring 16 goals.

The hockey star also has a fair share of experience in reality TV shows. He was a judge for MTV’s hit show Roadies. Depicting his life journey, Indian filmmaker Shaad Ali made a biographical film, titled Soorma. Actor Diljit Dosanjh played Sandeep Singh’s role in the film.

In the 2019 Haryana Legislative Assembly elections, Sandeep Singh was elected as an MLA from the Pehowa constituency on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket. He was then sworn in as Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs in the Haryana cabinet.