Swimming Federation of India bans coach after molestation allegations

The Swimming Federation of India (SFI) has banned Surajeet Ganguly from any form of coaching or other activities related to the sport across India after videos and photographs of him allegedly molesting a minor girl surfaced on the internet.

"A shocking and deplorable incident of gross misconduct by Surajeet Ganguly, a swim coach in Goa has come to the attention of the Swimming Federation of India and Goa Swimming association. A report of molestation has been reported on social media by a girl swimmer against this individual," Swimming Federation of India said in a statement.

"Based on social media accounts, the state unit has initiated suo-moto action to ban this individual from all coaching activity in the state. Based on a report filed with SFI by Goa Swimming Association and corroborated by evidence on social media, the Swimming Federation of India strongly condemns this heinous behavior and has decided to ban this coach from any form of coaching or other activities related to the sport across India," it added.

On Thursday, police registered a case against the coach. Both the accused and victim are from West Bengal and the accused is absconding, the police said.

Speaking to ANI, Union Minister for Youth Affairs and Sports, Kiren Rijiju said, "This incident is really very saddening. We would send a direction to all training centers of Sports Authority of India (SAI) and all the sports institutes in states that there should be a sensitisation programme for all the administrators and coaches."

Rijiju further said, "The role of a coach is essential for any athlete. When a coach teaches a youth then all of us including the parents of the youth trust that coach. If incidents like this happen, then how will the parents trust a coach?"

"In all field of sports, we will keep a vigil and try to ensure that these types of incidents do not occur in the future," he said.

Notably, Ganguly had won 12 medals in international swimming competitions with the first medal coming at the Asian Swimming Championships in Hong Kong in 1984.