I never told him to lose any match: Yogeshwar Dutt on Bajrang Punia's claims

Bajrang Punia (L), Yogeshwar Dutt (R) (Pic: AFP)

The mud-slinging match between the country's top wrestlers continued as former wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt termed Bajrang Punia's claim of ‘him asking Bajrang to concede wrestling bouts on purpose' as a ‘blatant lie'.

Bajrang, in a live social media address, had claimed on Saturday that Yogeshwar several times asked him to lose matches on purpose in the past.

"I never told him to lose any match. It's a blatant lie," Yogeshwar told PTI when asked about Bajrang's claim.

"During the (2016) Olympic qualification, he was part of the 65kg trials but we were not pitted against each other. Amit Dhankar had defeated him. In the final bout, I fought against Amit," he clarified.

"In the Pro Wrestling League, we fought against each other. There I won 3-0. If I wanted, I could have scored more and everybody knows that it was a show fight," he added.

Yogeshwar, who is now a BJP leader, said he always took Bajrang on foreign training trips as his sparring partner.

"Before 2016 Olympics whenever I went abroad I took Bajrang along with me. Despite all this, he has betrayed me. I don't know why is he accusing me and tarnishing my image."

Yogeshwar feels that Bajrang is just trying to settle scores against him by levelling such false allegations after they decided to split in 2018.

"In 2018 Bajrang told me that 'let me go to Commonwealth Games and you go to Asian Games' but I told him I will go through the trials. After that he got angry with me and we stopped talking to each other," he claimed.

"After 2016 Rio Olympics I never participated in any tournament, I never attended any camp. In camps there are many wrestlers in one weight category. Anybody can beat anyone.

"But I was never in the reckoning, I left wrestling, anyone could have beaten me easily. I left competitive wrestling in 2018, I am now a former wrestler."

Bajrang had claimed that in a final match in Italy, Yogeshwar told him to concede the final.

"You told me that I am first and you are second. You did not think of your junior player that if he wins, it will benefit him," Bajrang said.

However, the former wrestler did not accept that he did something like that.

"In our religion 'gau mata' (mother cow) is considered holy and I can swear on gau mata that I never asked Bajrang to concede a match," said Yogeshwar.

Bajrang's accusations came after Yogeshwar questioned the exemption from Asian Games and World Championship trials that was handed to six protesting wrestlers by the IOA ad-hoc panel.

Bajrang, Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, Sangeeta Phogat, Satyawart Kadian and Jitender Kinha received the exemption from the IOA panel.

Yogeshwar had questioned the logic behind the move and had urged the junior and other wrestlers to raise their voice against the decision.

Also Read: 'Bias is not good': Coaches, parents express displeasure over exemption given to six wrestlers

Infuriated by Yogeshwar's opposition, Bajrang alleged that the former wrestler himself had received several favours from the WFI, including exemptions from selection trials for internationals tournaments.

"Why is he blaming me that I was selected without trials for a tournament in 2014. The federation had such guidelines then. Sometimes they go by your achievements and seeding and exempt you from trails. Every federation has different rules which you have to obey."

Yogeshwar also quoted a picture on twitter, posted by Bajrang in August 2019 when the latter called him his Guru.

"How low will you stoop? If you had stopped talking in 2018 then why are you thanking God for a Guru (Dutt) in 2019?," Yogeshwar tweeted this morning.

Vinesh Phogat had also reacted to Yogeshwar's opposition to the exemption by calling him ‘Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's lackey'.

Also Read: Vinesh Phogat slams Yogeshwar Dutt, calls him Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's lackey

This is not the first time wrestlers are locked in a war of words. Earlier this month, Vinesh Phogat and Babita Phogat, who is also associated with BJP, had attacked each other on social media.

(With PTI inputs)