New Delhi: A livid International Boxing Association today said it plans to sue Hockey India Secretary General Narinder Batra for alleging that AIBA accepted money to approve the ad-hoc ‘Boxing India' group for running the sport in the country following the federation's termination.
“We refer to the scandalous and totally wrong allegations made by Mr Narinder Batra, the Secretary General of your National Federation which was published very recently,” AIBA's Executive Director Ho Kim said in a letter to HI President Mariamma Koshy.
“Please note that AIBA will not tolerate to be accused of having received a big amount of money from Boxing India for the latter to be accepted as the new National Member Federation in India.
“This information is totally wrong and AIBA is expecting to receive immediate explanation and proof of these allegations with evidence on this matter from Mr Batra for having spread such a rumour which is tarnishing the image of AIBA as well of Boxing India,” he added.
The chairman of long-time Indian boxing sponsor Monnet Ispat Limited, Sandeep Jajodia, and owner of India's World Series of Boxing franchise, Udit Sheth are part of the consortium which has got the AIBA's nod for provisional representation and is most likely to get formal approval as well.
Batra had alleged that the group paid a hefty amount to AIBA for getting the approval.
Kim said the allegations are nothing but lies.
“Mr Batra should be ashamed of questioning the integrity of AIBA as he has obviously absolutely no idea of the way our International Federation operates, of AIBA Ethics and principles of transparency. In addition, his criticism of Mr Narayan Ramachandran, President of the Indian Olympic Association, are also totally unfounded,” he said.
