Dipa Karmakar, who narrowly missed out the third place at women’s vault gymnastics in the Rio Olympics 2016, has decided to return the BMW XI car presented to her by cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar, owing to maintenance issues.
According to reports, the prime reason behind Dipa’s move seems to be the difficulty the gymnast and her family are having maintaining such a posh car in a city like Agartala, where the roads are narrow and not well-maintained.
Dipa, along with Sakshi Malik, PV Sindhu and badminton coach Pullela Gopichand, was presented the luxury car by Sachin Tendulkar for making India proud at Olympic Games.
While talking to a leading daily, Dipa’s father Dulal Karmakar said: “Some news reports are saying we are returning the car. It’s not true. We just want to replace it with another one as it difficult to drive and maintain such a vehicle in Agartala.”
“We have asked them to give us an amount equivalent to the price of the BMW car so that we can choose and purchase one in Agartala. They have agreed to do that and we expect the money soon,” he added.
According to Dipa's coach Bisheswar Nandi, there are two main reasons behind it. First, there is no BMW service center in Agartala and secondly, the roads are not suitable to drive such a posh car.
Tendulkar handed over the keys to the players on behalf Hyderabad District Badminton Association president V Chamundeshwarnath at an event in Hyderabad on August 28.
