Hours before wrestler’s murder, Sushil fired at dogs, assaulted fellow athletes: Chargesheet

In his statement to police, Dhiman, who had been working with Sushil at Chhatrasal stadium since April 2019 and handled “private and official work” related to the wrestler, has claimed he was with him on the night of May 4-5, 2021, when Sushil allegedly called several people to the basketball ground and said he wanted to “teach a lesson to some people”.

Sushil Kumar and his associate Ajay Sherawat after their arrest in Delhi.

Co-accused Rahul claimed in his statement that he along with Sushil, who was allegedly carrying a licensed pistol, and another associate reached the stadium and found coaches and wrestlers gathered there.

Just as they arrived, a few dogs started barking and Sushil, “who was very angry at the time”, allegedly fired in their direction. Sushil then asked two wrestlers to leave the stadium. When a wrestler, Vikas, asked Sushil, “Pehalwan ji what happened?”, he allegedly assaulted Vikas and chased him away after snatching his phone.

According to Rahul, after chasing away a third wrestler, Sushil said, “Where I go, who I meet, what I eat — all this information is being leaked by Sagar and Sonu Mahal.”

Sushil then asked a fourth wrestler to hand over his phone, and his refusal was met with the former allegedly hitting him on the forehead with his pistol.

Dhiman claimed that “later that night, I, along with Sushil and others, visited Shalimar Bagh and abducted Amit and Ravinder (who were assaulted along with Sagar) around 11.30 pm and took them to Chhatrasal stadium.” He told police that the duo were assaulted “on Sushil’s instructions”.

“At the stadium, we beat them a lot… we then visited a flat in Model Town where we abducted Sagar, Jaibhagwan, and Sonu and took them to the stadium,” Dhiman claimed in his statement.

According to the chargesheet, he quoted Sushil as saying, “Do not leave them alive. Beat them mercilessly.”

Co-accused Praveen, a “notorious criminal” involved in four criminal cases including murder, further quotes Sushil as saying, “I am the gunda of this area. How can you take over my flat?” as he allegedly assaulted them with a stick.

Dhiman claimed that they “assaulted them with lathi, danda, hockey stick and baseball bat. Our intention was to kill Sagar and Jaibhagwan as that was what Sushil wanted… He was scared that Sagar and Jaibhagwan were collecting information on him and wanted to cause him harm (to his life); that’s why Sushil wanted to kill them…”