Rajpath club swimmers beating incident: GSCW and GSCCP take cognisance, seek report

Ahmedabad: The incident of alleged beating of two adolescent girl swimmers by the swimming coach of well known Rajpath club here, a video of which has gone viral, has also drawn attention of the Gujarat State Commission for Women (GSCW) and Gujarat State Commission for Child Protection (GSCCP) and both the bodies have sought explanation from the club management in this regard.

GSCW chairman Lilaben Ankolia today said that she had asked the commissioner of police of Ahmedabad to investigate the whole incident and give a report. She has also asked the club chairman, women’s wing chairman and coach to appear before it within a week. She said that she has also asked the police to check whether women wings have been set up by the management of all the clubs or not.

GSCCP chairman Jagrutiben Pandya on the other hand has also asked the district child rights protection officer to investigate the matter and give a report. It has also sought the detailed report from the club management.

Notably the club president J B Patel has said that the swimming coach whose alleged video showing him hitting two adolescent girls on the poolside of the club has surfaced has been suspended till inquiry of the matter likely to be concluded in 15 days by an independent committee.

Strangely, the parents of the girls have so far not made any complaint in this regard. The coach Hardik Patel, today claimed that he did not use any belt to hit the girls and he used only a cloth strip which did not hurt. His intention was not to hurt them but to prepare the girls for better training so that there medal winning prospect becomes better. He also claimed that he has family like relation with the girls’ parents. He claimed that the matter was being wrongly presented and from a different angle.

A video of him hitting adolescent girls with belt like object near the pool of the club two days back has gone viral.

In the video the coach can also be heard using indecent language for the two girls whom he seemingly gave some instructions about swimming. He suddenly hit one of the girl in swimming suit with belt like object. Interestingly the video shows many people sitting around and many in the swimming pool itself when the incident took place. The video reportedly made last evening has gone viral drawing flak from all corners.

The club was earlier in controversies in July this year when on July 16 the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation had the club situated beside SG highway for not following the parking and other rules.

DeshGujarat