Soumyajit Ghosh dropped from CWG squad, suspended

New Delhi: Former national table tennis champion Soumyajit Ghosh was axed from the Commonwealth Games team and provisionally suspended, a day being accused of rape by a woman in Kolkata.

“The Executive Board of the Table Tennis Federation of India has placed Soumyajit Ghosh under provisional suspension, pending final outcome of the police investigation and court verdict, if any, on the alleged rape charges against him by a teenager,” TTFI said in a statement.

“During the suspension, he will not be able to participate in any tournament, national or international.”

Soumyajit was booked under penal sections for rape, criminal conspiracy, causing miscarriage without the woman’s consent and cheating in a complaint lodged by an 18-year-old at the Barasat women’s police station in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal on Thursday. The 24-year-old Arjuna awardee from Siliguri, who was training in Germany for the April 4 to 15 CWG in Gold Coast, denied the allegations, saying that the accuser had been blackmailing him after their relationship ended and the allegations were a ploy to ruin his career.

The federation took its decision based on legal opinion. TTFI will also issue a show cause notice to Ghosh, “asking him to explain his stand on the FIR lodged by the girl, especially on the allegations against him.”