Commonwealth Games gold medallist weightlifter Achinta Sheuli has been thrown out of national camp at the National Institute of Sports (NIS) in Patiala for gross indiscipline, as he allegedly attempted to break into the women's hostel premises in the middle of the night.
The Sports Authority of India (SAI), which runs the NIS Patiala campus, had to take drastic action against the 22-year-old, who won the gold medal in the men's 73 kg weightlifting at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in 2022, as he was caught on Thursday night (14 March) while trying to break into the women's hostel.
Sheuli, who is in Patiala preparing for the Paris Olympics, was caught by the alert guards as he scaled the boundary wall and tried to sneak into the women's hostel.
"Yes, he has been sent back from the national camp. He has been sent back to his parent body and is currently at the Army Institute of Sports (AIS)," Sahadev Yadav, president of the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF), told IANS over the phone on Saturday. Sheuli hails from West Bengal and initial reports suggested that he has been sent back to his hometown near Kolkata.
Yadav said no further action would be taken against the weightlifter by the federation or SAI as of now. It looks clear that the federation and SAI are waiting for a full investigation into the matter before taking a final decision.
In NIS Patiala, the men's and women's hostels are separate. Currently, sportspersons from different sports are stationed there to attend their respective national camps in the Olympic year. The incident has caused a major storm in the NIS campus and the officials have launched a full-fledged investigation into the matter.
Security Guards Took Videos of Sheuli Climbing Walls: Report
According to various reports, Sheuli is believed to have scaled the walls at the NIS campus, and security guards caught him and even took videos.
The reports claimed that this is not the first time such an incident involving a weightlifter has happened at the NIS Patiala. A couple of years back, young weightlifter Jeremy Lalrinnunga, the Youth Olympics gold medallist and CWG medallist, was accused of the same offence and thrown out of the national camp.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)