The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) has banned three national-level players (under 17 and 18 categories) for two years and another for one for allegedly fudging their age records. The TTFI decision has came after the sports integrity unit of the CBI, which probed the matter after receiving complaints, found that four players had forged their birth certificates.
These players include Sutirtha Mukherjee, Oishwarya Deb, Priyadarshini Das and Ayhika Mukherjee. All four players are from West Bengal. According to sources, three players have also been fined '25,000 each and stripped off their previous titles at the junior, senior, domestic and international levels. The TTFI has also written to the employers of the players recommending suitable actions against them, they added.
Sources said, “Ayhika Mukherjee, who was also under the scanner of the CBI, was found not taking any advantage at the age group level tournaments despite possessing two birth certificates. Therefore, she has been banned for a year only.”
Sutirtha, who had won three zonal titles, also represented the national team in the Youth Olympics, they said.
The CBI in 2014 initiated an inquiry against several national and state-level table tennis players for allegedly participating in underage categories of competitions by producing manipulated age records. “There were allegations that several state- and national-level TT players manipulated their age proof documents so as to be able to play in the lower age category tournaments,” said a senior official of the agency.
“The TTFI had asked the players to voluntary declare their actual age by November 2014 and 55 of them, including 44 from Bengal came forward to admit their mistakes. But these players did not do that”, sources said.
In a bid to eradicate corruption and match-fixing in sports, the CBI formed a specialised unit to handle cases relating to sports fraud and illegal betting. The unit, sources said, also co-ordinates with other law enforcement agencies of the world apart from liaising with sports federations and State police forces to check the menace of match-fixing and other corrupt practices in sports.
