Hockey India's Secretary General accused of extorting money

Hockey India got embroiled in a controversy as Secretary General Bhola Nath Singh was accused of trying to extort money from Telangana Hockey Unit President Saral Talwar on Saturday.

In a letter addressed to Dilip Tirkey, Hockey India president, Saral Talwar has accused Bhola Nath Singh of demanding a sum of Rs 25 lakh to allow the state hockey unit to conduct the elections.

The Telangana Hockey is being administered by an ad-hoc committee and the elections were due in April. According to Talwar, Bhola Nath has been creating multiple hurdles in elections citing different reasons.

The problem started when HI, under Bhola Nath's leadership, formed an ad-hoc committee to run the day-to-day affairs of Telangana Hockey.

The three-member ad-hoc committee was headed by Chhattisgarh Hockey Secretary General Firoz Ansari, and it forced Talwar to complain.

Talwar said that they have been trying to conduct the elections from the onset but HI was deferring it citing one or the other reasons, including, non-compliance with its constitution.

In the letter, Talwar mentioned that Bhola Nath Singh demanded money to declare the ad-hoc committee void and obtain a favorable report from the Grievance Redressal Committee.

"The elections were due in April and we were about to conduct it, but an HI official was sabotaging that. HI said there were complaints and we gave an answer to the committee finally I met him (Bhola Nath) and he said that 'if you want to get out of it, you have to pay Rs 25 (lakh). It was just me and him in the room," Saral Talwar told PTI.

Although Bhola Nath has denied the allegations, for now, things in the office of Hockey India look far from good.