Nashik: Olympic rower booked for harassment, cheating

NASHIK: Internationally-acclaimed rower Dattu Bhokanal (28) has landed in trouble after a woman constable from Nashik, who claimed they had married secretly two years ago, accused him of cheating and harassment in her police complaint lodged on Thursday.
The constable, attached with the Nashik rural police, has alleged that Bhokanal has backed out of the relationship and is refusing to formally marry her.
FIR: Bhokanal, woman cop got married secretly in 2017
The Adgaon police station in Nashik registered an FIR in the case under sections 489(A) (harassment) and 420 (cheating) of the Indian Penal Code. Senior inspector Suraj Bijli said Bhokanal will be called for questioning.
However, Bhokanal’s lawyer Charvak Kamble refuted the allegations levelled by the woman. “My client will be moving court,” he said.
Bhokanal had humble origins with his father making a living as a well-digger in Chandwad. After his father passed away in 2011, Bhokanal, then 19, appeared for the Army’s selection drive and was absorbed in the Bombay Engineer Group & Centre (BEG) in Pune in 2012, where he was introduced to rowing.
Bhokanal qualified for the Rio Olympic Games in 2016 by winning silver in the singles sculls event at the FISA Asian and Oceania Olympic qualification regatta in South Korea. He finished 13th in Rio. He has been training at the Army Rowing Node at the College of Military Engineering in Pune.
In her FIR, the woman, a resident of Chandwad taluka, said she got to know Bhokanal during a felicitation programme at her village in 2015. The FIR states they married secretly at Jai Ambe Mangal Karyalaya at Devachi Alandi in Khed, Pune, in December 2017.
The woman told the police that Bhokanal had promised to have a formal wedding ceremony where their relatives would be invited. She said that after their secret marriage, they began visiting each other in Nashik and Pune. During these meetings, they decided to marry formally on February 9 this year in Chandwad, she said. She claimed Bhokanal also met her father to tell him about their relationship and their decision to marry formally.
The woman told the police that two days before the marriage, Bhokanal called her up to say he was indisposed and had been admitted to hospital. He later allegedly threatened to consume poison if she pestered him to get married, she alleged.
The complaint further states that the two met on February 13 and 14 and had heated arguments on both occasions. The woman alleged that Bhokanal abused her verbally but later agreed to a wedding ceremony on February 24.
The woman said her parents, accordingly, booked a hall in Sangamner and invited their relatives for the wedding. However, Bhokanal again called her two days before the wedding and said he would not attend the ceremony, she told the police.
The woman did not respond to calls made by TOI. When contacted, Bhokanal’s family told TOI that they knew nothing about him having married the constable.
Bhokanal’s younger brother Gokul said, “We are desperately trying to get in touch with him in Pune, where he is at present. His cell phone has been switched off.”