Hima Das' coach accused of sexual assault by 20-year-old athlete

Nipon Das

India's new athletics sensation Hima Das' coach Nipon Das has been accused of sexual assault by another athlete who trained under him in Guwahati, even as the coach termed the charges "false and fabricated".

Nipon trained the athlete at the Indira Gandhi Athletics Stadium in the Assam capital. The woman athlete had said in her police complaint that she has been sexually assaulted by Nipon in the middle of May. The local police had filed an FIR on the complaint of the woman who is around 20-year-old and interrogated Nipon. The complaint was filed on June 22. Nipon, who spotted and mentored Hima to a world junior championship title recently, claimed innocence.

He said the woman made "false" charges as he could not get a place for her in the Assam team for the National Inter-State Athletics Championships [June 26-29] held in Guwahati. "This woman athlete who runs 100m and 200m trains under me and she was always after me to get her into the Assam team. I could not do that because there are other girls who are better than her," Nipon said. He said police investigation was going on and that he is confident of coming out clean.

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