In 2019, an audio clip went viral in parts of Haryana, the state known for being the powerhouse of Indian sports. It was a fragment of a conversation between a man and a woman. She’s telling him about a coach named Vinod Loyal. 

At the time, Loyal had risen to the status of a local hero for many because his proteges had turned Sadalpur into a hub for football talent. Six young women footballers from the village had played for India internationally and more than 10 had made the cut for the national team. All of them had been coached by Loyal at some point. Loyal’s wife Suman said, “My husband has done such a noble job that girls who could never manage to sit on a camel are now flying in airplanes.” 

In the audio clip that surfaced, the woman alleges Loyal had sexually harassed her and others coaching under him. She lists names of his victims. All of them were training with Loyal to become footballers. 

Coaches and other figures of authority abusing their power by molesting and even raping the girls entrusted in their care is the dark side of Haryana producing some of the best women athletes in the world. Between 2019 and 2023, the state saw female athletes file 24 cases of sexual harassment. Of these, 14 were under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. 

Newslaundry travelled to Hisar, Bhiwani, Jind and Gurugram districts to investigate the allegations and was able to collect information about 13 of the 24 cases. During our reporting, we learnt that most of the cases were dismissed either during the police investigation or when they reached the court, usually because the survivor didn’t testify.

‘I can’t trust anyone now’

Last year, on July 31, a first information report (FIR) was registered at the women’s police station in Jind under the POCSO Act and sections 363 (kidnapping), 366A (procurement of minor girls), 342 (wrongful confinement), 376D (gang rape), 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

According to the complaint filed by the mother of the survivor, 14-year-old Rekha is a throwball player and was enrolled at a sports academy in Jind, run by Ranjeet, who is a family friend. Approximately a month after joining the academy, on the evening of July 29, Ranjeet called Rekha’s home and said he would pick her up the next morning to go with him to Narwana for a game. On July 30, Ranjeet picked Rekha up and took her to a furniture shop in Narwana where he and a friend raped her while the shop owner stood guard outside. Ranjeet threatened to kill Rekha and her family if she told anyone what he’d done to her.    

However, Rekha did tell her family. “When I returned from the field after four in the evening, my wife and mother took me to the terrace and told me everything. At that time, I fainted and fell. After regaining consciousness, I gathered my family and told everyone about it. We then went to the police and lodged a complaint,” said Randhir Singh, Rekha’s father, who had been a kabaddi player when he was young and had hoped Rekha and her sister would fulfil his dreams of becoming a professional athlete. “After that incident, my daughters stopped playing,” he said. “To be honest, I can’t trust anyone now. Ranjeet was from my village, my daughters were like his nieces. If he did this, whom can we trust?” 

In April 2024, approximately a year after the protesting Indian wrestlers made headlines with their demand that the former chief of Wrestling Federation of India Brij Bhushan Singh be arrested for alleged sexual abuse, the court found Ranjeet guilty under the POCSO Act. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and a fine of Rs 10,000. The other two accused were acquitted due to lack of evidence. Randhir told Newslaundry he was determined to “fight for my daughter till my last breath”, but he was disillusioned by the sporting scene. “Look at Vinesh Phogat or Sakshi Malik, how long they ran from pillar to post and cried,” he said. “Did anyone listen to them? If such things start happening at the lower level, who knows what will happen next? So I have kept my daughters away from sports.” 

Although Haryana has a rich legacy of producing gifted sportspersons practically since the state’s inception, it sowed the roots of a successful sports policy in 2000 when the then chief minister Om Prakash Chautala announced that any Haryanvi athlete who won at the Sydney Olympics would be given a cash prize by his government. There were no medals won by athletes from Haryana that year, but the incentive acted as a potent inspiration. 

By 2016-2017, sports infrastructure had developed by leaps and bounds in the state. In Rohtak district alone, there were 14 stadiums where children could practice everything from wrestling to volleyball. The impact was felt internationally. India won 38 gold medals at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, of which 15 were won by athletes from Haryana. Vijender Singh, from Kaluwas village in Bhiwani district, won the bronze medal for boxing at the 2008 Olympics. Yogeshwar Dutt and Sakshi Malik won bronze medals for wrestling at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics respectively. 

According to data from the Sports Authority of India, 20 percent of India’s 117-athlete contingent for the Olympics this year came from Haryana. The state awards a maximum of Rs 6 crore to gold medal winners, Rs 4 crore to silver medal winners and Rs 2.5 crore for bronze medallists. Medallists also get government jobs, often with the state police. Haryana is the only state in India that offers equivalent cash awards to para-athletes (although there have been complaints of delayed payments). 

For girls and women to benefit from Haryana’s sports policy required coaches like Ishwar Singh Dahiya, who was one of the first to start training girls for wrestling at Sir Chhotu Ram Stadium in Rohtak. His list of illustrious students include Sakshi Malik and Suman Kundu, who won a bronze medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. Speaking to Mint in 2016, Kundu said that once she started training as a wrestler, she only returned to her village when her professional success was undeniable. “Do you know I did not go to my village till 2010 when I won the bronze in the Commonwealth Games? And that too, because they invited me. Otherwise, the backlash against my family had been so intense for letting a girl get into wrestling,” she said. 

Even though sports offer opportunities for social mobility and job security, there appears to be an underlying anxiety that comes from these girls becoming independent women, both financially and temperamentally, as they travel beyond the boundaries of the village and its conventions for their tournaments.   

‘How can I compromise in such a situation?’

Haryana is famous for its entrenched sexism and conservatism, sharply reflected in the fact that the state has historically had one of the lowest sex ratios in the country. (This trend changed between 2015 and 2019, when the sex ratio peaked at 923 females per 1,000 males. It has since started to dip again, with six districts reporting more than a 20-point drop between 2022 and 2023.) 

One of the reasons conservative practices persist is that families believe these keep the girls safe. To that end, families often choose as coach someone who is known or related to them. “The coach’s wife is my dharma sister. We know each other,” said Tejveer Singh, whose daughter Naina is an international-level women's football player from a village in Hisar. 

Naina was one of the girls mentioned in the viral audio clip about coach Vinod Loyal. On July 3, 2019, a case was filed against Loyal under sections 354 (assaulting a woman), 354A (sexual harassment), 354D (stalking) of the IPC and the POCSO Act, based on Naina’s complaint. The FIR said Naina had detailed incidents that took place in 2015 and 2017, when Naina had gone to Odisha for a tournament with Loyal. The following day, Naina’s father was named as an accused by a young woman who alleged Tejveer had taken her to Rajasthan and misbehaved with her. 

Both cases were dismissed on August 20 on the grounds that the original complaints were not credible. Naina’s lawyer tried to reopen the case, but Hisar district court said too much time had lapsed since the alleged incidents.

The audio clip case

In case of the FIR filed regarding the audio clip that went viral, five young men were charged with stalking and defamation. One of the accused, Mahender, admitted to Newslaundry that he had sent the clip to a friend, who is also among the accused. He said the conversation was one he’d been having with his friend, Neha*. 

“When the matter went to the police, Tanu came forward. She is from my village and was an international level football player. She told the police, ‘I was talking in this audio pretending to be Neha’,” said Mahender, who is a national-level footballer and currently works as a daily wage labourer to make a living. He’s certain that he had not confused Neha and Tanu. Mahender was charged with conspiracy and went to jail, but the case was eventually settled. Neha’s family stopped her from playing football and she got married soon after. 

When Newslaundry tried to contact her family and the panchayat about this case, neither was willing to talk.   

Naina’s sister Chahat told Newslaundry that Loyal was a serial offender. “When we would go somewhere to play, he would talk to the girls inappropriately. Talk about sex. Touch them inappropriately. We girls know the touch. After enduring quite a lot, we told our parents. Later, four-five girls gave statements against the coach. Nothing happened to the coach, rather we left Haryana,” said Chahat, who is also an athlete and currently playing for a university in Punjab.

The role played by the police while investigating complaints has been a cause for concern in a number of cases. Allegations of corruption and taking bribes are rampant. Sat Singh, a journalist who has worked in Haryana for the past two decades, said, “You will see many cases where the police claim the charges could not be proven, leading to the case being closed. The police's job is to collect evidence, which they do not do honestly. This weakens the case. If the police collect evidence properly, the accused cannot escape, but the police benefit from not doing so.”

Savitri Singh, a resident of a village in Gurugram, believes that if the police had taken timely action, her daughter Sarita would be alive today. Sarita was a taekwondo player and boxer who won many medals and had travelled internationally for tournaments. She was shot dead at the gate of her home on November 12, 2019 by Somveer Jat, a wrestler who had stalked Sarita for months before this tragic incident. 

Savitri told Newslaundry, “Sarita used to play in Gurugram. Somveer had come to stay with his maternal uncle. He also used to come to the ground. Since then, he started following Sarita. He even asked for her number once or twice, which Sarita refused.” Somveer got hold of Sarita’s phone number and started harassing her. Sarita eventually told her mother and sister about Somveer and the family tried to explain to him that Sarita was not interested in a relationship. “He was not ready to understand,” said Savitri of Somveer. 

To avoid Somveer, Sarita left Gurugram and got a job in Jaipur, at Maharani Victoria School. Somveer allegedly followed her there and would stand outside the school for three months. Savitri said Sarita filed a complaint against Somveer with Jaipur Police and then shifted her base to Nagpur, where she began studying to become a coach. Somveer continued to stalk her. 

Between June and November 2019, four complaints were lodged by Sarita’s family and FIRs were filed, naming Somveer as a serious threat. 

The first FIR, dated June 6, 2019, details how Somveer came with friends to Sarita’s family and demanded Sarita be married to him. Sarita’s father Jaipal Singh is quoted pleading to the police. “Please take legal action against Somveer and protect my family,” he said. The second FIR was filed less than a month later on July 11, 2019. This time Jaipal told the police that Somveer had come home and assaulted his wife and son. Somveer also warned them against informing the police. Once again, Jaipal pleaded to the police to take action against Somveer. On August 20, 2019, a third FIR was filed after Somveer attacked Jaipal. “Please take action on this because we are afraid of some big mishap. Life is in danger,” said Jaipal, as per the FIR. 

However, no arrests were made despite three FIRs naming Somveer. In September 2019, Jaipal passed away. Two months later, Savitri went to the police station and a fourth FIR was registered against Somveer. This time it was for Sarita’s murder. 

On the night that she was killed, Somveer showed up without warning and demanded to speak to Sarita. Sarita was standing at the gate and Savitri tried to come in between her daughter and Somveer. He pushed her, she fell and Somveer shot Sarita. A neighbour, Mahavir Jat, recalled Somveer was “a rowdy type”. “By the time we reached, he had fled. Sarita was lying at the gate, soaked in blood,” he said. 

It took Gurugram Police less than a year to arrest Somveer. 

Savitri is determined to pursue the case against him, despite people from nearby villages urging her to arrive at a compromise with Sarita’s killer. "My daughter is gone. We lived in fear for many years. How can I compromise in such a situation?” said Savitri. She remains convinced that Sarita’s life could have been saved if the police had acted sooner on the FIRs filed after her husband’s complaints. “The police became active after the murder. If they had gone earlier and put him in jail, this situation would not have happened.”

Inspector Yogesh Kataria, who is currently posted at the police station handling Sarita’s case, said, “This is a very old case. The investigating officer has also been transferred from here. So what can I tell you? I can only say that whatever cases come before me, we take immediate action.”

‘It’s an old matter. Why dig into it?’

The toll these cases take on the complainant can be debilitating. Of the two cases filed in Bhiwani district in 2020 and 2023, the latter was closed because the allegation couldn’t be verified during the police investigation, which can be a harrowing experience for the survivor since she has to keep repeating her testimony (and thus relive the trauma). There is also the social stigma that comes from being the subject of such an enquiry. In the 2020 case, the witness turned hostile – a phrase that places the onus of responsibility on the survivor and usually camouflages the challenges and trauma faced by her. 

According to the FIR, a minor volleyball player was taken to Ujjain for a tournament. There, coach Ashok fed her jalebi which rendered her unconscious. When she came to senses, she realised she’d been stripped of her clothes and the coach’s hand was on her chest. At a window, she noticed some boys she knew and they made videos of her in that state. Later these boys allegedly raped the girl on different occasions with the threat of circulating the video. At one point, the girl felt driven to attempt suicide. Ultimately, the case was closed because neither the survivor nor her father, who is listed as a witness, wanted to testify. 

When Newslaundry tried to contact the victim and her immediate family, we were unsuccessful. Ultimately, we were able to reach a relative of hers who said the accused were actually from the same family as the survivor. The relative confirmed that a settlement had been reached between those involved.  

Especially in cases of sexual crimes, it is standard practice in Haryana for unofficial “panchayats” – a loose gathering of villagers without elected members of the local village council – to get involved. In contrast to the due processes of the police and the courts, the intervention of the “panchayat” tends to be swift, which makes it preferable to many. 

Randhir Singh had said that in the matter of his daughter Rekha, the village and “panchayat” were on his side. But Gudiya and her father Virendra Singh’s experience is the opposite. The Dalit family is from a village in Jind district and Gudiya is the youngest of four daughters. In 2021, when Gudiya was 14 years old and studying in Class VIII, she began training for wrestling with Sonu, who coached students at the playground in Gudiya’s school. A few days after she’d started training with Sonu, he allegedly took Gudiya into a room and raped her.

The 14-year-old told her family what had happened the same day and Virendra lost no time approaching the police. After a medical and police investigation, another accused named Kaalu was added to the case. Kaalu lived with his maternal uncle in Gudiya’s village. He was serving a sentence in jail after being embroiled in a murder case, but Kaalu was released during the Covid-19 pandemic, following an order by the Supreme Court to tackle overcrowding in prisons.

Virendra said the police acted swiftly once he’d filed his complaint, and both the accused were arrested and sent to jail. 

While the case was being processed, locals got involved. “The elders of the village gathered and said that they (the accused) have been in jail for so many days. They have got the punishment for the mistake they committed,” recalled Virendra, adding that he felt pressured to withdraw the case. 

He was a witness in the case along with Gudiya’s teacher Yamuna Devi, whose coaching class Gudiya had gone to in the evening, after being sexually assaulted. “I was also tired of going to court, my daughter was also not able to come out of that trauma. Seeing these circumstances, I withdrew the case. I did not take money from any of the accused,” said Virendra. 

Newslaundry was able to talk to Avtar Singh, who was part of the “panchayat” that “settled” Gudiya’s case. “It’s an old matter. Why dig into it?” he said. “A settlement has been reached. Many such settlements have been made in this village itself. This is not the first case.” 

Besides the “settlement”, the district court acquitted the accused in May 2023 due to the witnesses and victim turning hostile in the case. Gudiya’s case is officially closed. On paper, the matter ends there, but for Gudiya, the ramifications are greater. She scored 91 percent in Class X and won a cash prize of Rs 8,000 from the state government of Haryana. Her mother Suman said they’re hoping she will be married soon. “Right now she is 17 years and a few months old. We have started looking for a boy. The day she turns 18, we will get her married,” she told Newslaundry. “If it is in her destiny, her in-laws will educate her.”

Virendra also told us that he knows of the “panchayat” having settled other cases. 

These gatherings usually favour the man who is accused and champion settlements in which the girl and her family will withdraw the case. 

Hisar district, which registered the most number of cases between 2019 and 2023, also recorded the highest number of cases being closed through this manner. Of the six cases registered in Hisar, four have been closed and two are still doing the rounds of courts. Examining the documents revealed that cases that have been closed are often explained away as personal enmity. 

In March this year, the Punjab-Haryana High Court issued an order stating that an FIR will be filed against the survivor if she retracts her rape accusation. This order was related to a rape case that ended with a compromise. 

With the punishment being imposed on the survivor rather than those who put pressure on the complainant and her family to compromise, it is likely that this order will only serve to deter girls and women from coming forward with their testimonies. 

‘They are often silenced’

A lawyer working in Hisar court explained, “More than half of the cases are settled in the village panchayat before they even reach the police. Some of the cases that do reach the police are settled through transactions. When cases reach the court, the village council or elders often convince the parties to withdraw the case. Sometimes, the victim's family is given money.” 

The influence extended by the panchayat is evident from the case of Ramphal, who coaches athletes in Hisar. 

An FIR was filed on August 10, 2023. Initially, this case was registered as an assault. Akash, Vinay and two other boys beat up Ramphal and the coach reported the incident to the police. During the investigation, three girls – one of them is Ramphal’s daughter – came forward and recorded their statements, following which charges of sexual harassment, stalking and the POCSO Act were filed against the four accused. The three girls received counselling and after this, their statements were found to be false. The additional charges were dropped and all the accused were acquitted after the witnesses testified. 

“The villagers sat together and explained that the boys who attacked me in the dark of the night were some other people. They (Akash and others) used to come to the place where I used to train girls, so one day I scolded them. It was only after that that I was attacked. So I filed a case against them. After the explanation from the villagers, I withdrew the case,” Ramphal told Newslaundry. 

The allegations made by a female complainant were also found to be false in an FIR filed in July 2021, in which a shooter made accusations against a football coach named Anil. She had submitted that in April 2020, Anil had molested her and threatened her with casteist slurs. He’d approached her on the pretext of treating a pain she was feeling as a result of the recoil from the gun during shooting. 

Initially Anil was charged under sections 354A (sexual harassment), 294 (obscene acts in public places) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC along with the POCSO Act and the Scheduled Castes/ Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act. A senior officer of the women's police station told Newslaundry that the case was investigated by DCP Bharti Dabas. The allegations made by the complainant were found to be false in the investigation, due to which the case was closed on August 10, 2021.

The closure report says the records revealed a financial transaction between the survivor’s brother Rajeev and the named accused. 

Rajeev, who works at a gas agency, said to Newslaundry, “The police took money and closed the case. We hired a lawyer and got it reopened.” 

Santosh Dahiya, a professor and social worker at Kurukshetra University, said, “Such cases are often suppressed within the family. Very few families agree to pursue them. Most rape cases in rural areas involve victims who are economically poor or belong to lower castes. They are often silenced either through coercion or monetary inducement.”

Haryana is a state riddled with ironies when it comes to women’s rights. While on one hand, athletes such as Manu Bhaker and Vinesh Phogat, who performed brilliantly in the Olympics this year, have brought laurels to the country and their state across the world, the traditional social shackles against women remain firmly in place. 

In 2022, the number of registered rape cases was 1,968, which shows a sharp increase since 2015 when 1,070 cases were registered. Cases with minor victims and survivors rose to 1,358 in 2022. In 2015, 224 cases were filed under the POCSO Act. 

Some of the increase in numbers may be attributed to more women coming forward with their experiences, but as our investigation showed, to come forward with accusations of rape and sexual assault can in itself be traumatic for the survivor and her family. With witnesses turning hostile, testimonies being declared false and cases being ‘settled’ outside the court, there is little justice and even less satisfaction for those who speak up against their abusers in Haryana.    

The names of survivors, their family members and the accused in POCSO cases have been changed to protect identities.