Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju confirms arrest of three involved in Kehlo India fraud

Last updated on February 20th, 2023 at 01:26 pm

The Union Sports Minister confirmed through a tweet that three arrests were made by the Uttar Pradesh police in connection with a fraud done under the banner of Khelo India games. 

On Friday, the sports minister announced, “I am happy to share that the three persons, Sanjay Pratap Singh, Anuj Kumar and Ravi, involved in fleecing money from athletes with the assurance of helping them to participate in Khelo India Games 2021, have been apprehended by UP Police this morning, following an FIR by SAI.”

Under this fraud, athletes from across the country were duped by certain people through advertisements and asked for money using the name of Khelo India initiative 2021. Upon investigating, it was found that there was a detailed planning that led to the execution of such a scam. The Agra police is investigating the details of the scam after the Sports Authority of India filed an FIR against an alleged leader living in the city. 

The case has been transferred to the cyber cell confirmed SSP Bablu Kumar. In a report by the News18, it was revealed that a person from Bah Tehsil advertised an information on his social media where he incited sports persons to contact him if they wanted to participate in the national games scheduled to be held in Panchkula, Haryana next year. 

In an earlier statement to the press, SAI said, “The Sports Authority of India has received several complaints from grassroot-level athletes from across the country that an advertisement has been posted on social media platforms inviting applications to participate in the Khelo India Games scheduled in Panchkula in Haryana in 2021.”

The confusion grew after athletes realised that the advertisement had the logo of the sports ministry and Khelo India embedded in it and that led many aspiring athletes to believe that it was carried out by the government. 

The aspiring athletes were reportedly asked to pay a sum of Rs 6,000 to participate in the tournament and as reported by the IANS, mother of one such athlete also confirmed that first they send a bogus form to fill and then ask to submit the money, which often fools the athletes. 

The Ministry of Sports has earlier made it clear that the selection of athletes will be done only on the basis of their performance in  School Games/University Games organised by SGFI/AIU”.

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