Olympian Sagardeep Kaur
It has been four years since 2004 Athens Olympian Sagardeep Kaur (35) reportedly died in a tragic road accident in Haryana’s Kaithal district, dated November 23, 2016.
However, the mystery surrounding her death remains unsettled to this day for her family, who still believes that circumstances around her death are suspicious and requires further investigation.
Noted track and field stars Shivpal Singh and Seema Antil Punia also took to social media to raise their support for the #justiceforsagardeep social media campaign, started by Sagardeep’s younger sister Rattandeep Kaur.
Shivpal, who has already booked a slot in next year’s Tokyo Olympics requested social media users to make the campaign as successful as Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case so that the authorities order a thorough investigation into the death of the 2002 Asian Athletics Championships gold medallist.
As per a report, the Kaithal Police has already shut the case as a road accident, where the victim died after being hit by an unidentified vehicle.
However, Rattandeep (32) told Indiatvnews.com that her family has suspicion on Sagardeep’s husband Satnam Singh (40), who is the sole eye-witness of the accident, of misleading the police investigation and wants the case to be reopened for further probe.
“Our suspicion started after police FIR suggested that she died in a road accident while she was out for a morning walk with Satnam in Cheeka. It took us by surprise because as per what Satnam told us earlier, didi died after her scooty met with an accident,” Rattandeep said.
“This prompted us to ask for her post-mortem report which revealed she had no internal injuries and had sustained multiple rib fractures. This added further suspicions to what Satnam has claimed to us.”
Reportedly, on December 14, 2016, Kaithal police started an investigation on the matter and on December 31, 2016, it closed the case as an accident report after failing to trace the vehicle which hit Sagardeep.
Unsatisfied with the report, the Rattandeep and her parents approached Kaithal Superintendent of police to further investigate the matter in January 2017. The second round of investigation, based on Satnam’s FIR, also backed the previous report while the vehicle wasn’t traced again.
Rattandeep claims that as per the report, the scooty reflected in police’s report only in April 2017, after police reportedly confiscated it from Satnam’s cousin in Patiala with scratches on it.
Subsequently Rattandeep and family moved Punjab High Court in the same month, blaming police of negligence in the investigation and demanded CBI inquiry. The appeal was later rejected by the court on January 25, 2019.
In April 2017, police also filed a case against Satnam of cheating by means of communication under section 182 of Cr.PC in Civil Magistrate court, where Rattandeep alleges that her family was never made a party to it. However, the case was dismissed in September 2018.
Rattandeep and family maintain that justice is denied in the case and needs to be reopened with a complete and thorough investigation into every aspect of the case and took to social media with the hope of justice.
When Indiatvnews.com contacted Satnam Singh for his comment on the matter, the Haryana sports department coach said all the allegations made are baseless and he has been subject to harassment due to the social media campaign and has put a bad name to his reputation.
“All the allegations made against me are wrong and baseless. If I was the wrong then I wouldn’t have been cleared by the Punjab HC. I never lied in any FIR report. I am a coach of good repute and I train more than 200 kids at my academy. This social campaign against me is done intentionally to destroy my life and I have also filed a complaint with cyber police,” Satnam said.
“I also filed a complaint to Facebook to take down the campaign but there’s nobody listening to me. I have two kids to take care of but everyone seems to be siding with them because I am a man and she (Rattandeep) is a woman, people hear to a woman’s plea more than a man.”
Interestingly, Satnam has already re-married one of his student in 2018. After his re-marriage, in January 2019, Sagardeep’s father Sukhsagar Singh (64) and Swaranjeeet Kaur (60) filed a case in Kaithal Court for the custodial battle of two kids Sagardeep had with Satnam.
