Delhi court appoints administrator to run kabaddi

Mahipal Singh

In reply to Arjun awardee kabaddi player Mahipal Singh's petition alleging that the Amateur Kabaddi Federation of India's (AKFI) has not held elections for 28 years, the Delhi High Court yesterday appointed an administrator to look the workings of the AKFI and called for fresh elections within the next three months. This also brought to end the near-three decades reign of AKFI Life President Janardan Sing Gehlot and his wife and AKFI president Mridul Bhadauria.

"We appoint Shri Sanat Kaul, IAS (Retd.) as Administrator, who will, till further orders, take over control of the AKFI, and administer all its affairs. He shall stand substituted in place of the President of the AKFI and shall be entitled to exercise all powers which existed, heretofore, in the president of the AKFI," a Delhi High Court order mentioned.

"Till date, Gehlot had his way with things. He and his team selected only those players into the Indian team, whom they liked, and deserving players were ignored. Now, Gehlot will have account for all the financial benefits AKFI received since 2013. This will have a positive impact on Indian kabaddi," Mahipal, who has represented India at the 2000 Asian Championships in Sri Lanka, told mid-day.

AKFI chairman KE Prabhakar however, said that the association is an autonomous body, but claimed he was "yet to read the full court order."

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