Two days after an attack on the former medical officer of the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Sajib Kumar Nandi, the city police have commissioned an inquiry into the case. When contacted, the city’s superintendent of police, RK Sharma, confirmed that he would head the inquiry but questioned the media’s “unnecessary interest in the matter”.

The police had earlier lodged a Daily Diary Report against Ranawat, an executive director at NIS and Mohinder Lal, a handball coach working with SAI, following a complaint by Nandi who was attacked on Monday night on his way back home. “Unidentified goons, following orders from the two men, pushed me and hit me twice with a blunt weapon before I fell unconscious,” he told the police. Nandi had been admitted to the hospital after the attack.

Sources in the Sports Authority of India (SAI) have revealed that Nandi was recently transferred from NIS Patiala as he did not share cordial relations with Ranawat. Nandi had sought information against Ranawat and 10 other senior SAI officers through an RTI application. “The application filed in May 2009, seeking details about the terms and conditions of their appointment and various other expenditures incurred by them in the last few years, is still pending,” the sources said.

They also added that because of Ranawat’s connections, he had not been shifted from NIS Patiala despite many complaints against him, including a case where SAI lost a piece of land worth crores of rupees inside the NIS premises. “Since Nandi was the whistle-blower, he has been targetted,” they said.

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