BENGALURU: Former international athlete Bindu Rani was verbally attacked and shoved by a woman coach at the Sri Kanteerava Stadium here early on Monday morning during practice.
In a video that is doing the rounds on social media, the woman coach can be seen verbally attacking Bindu Rani for not giving an explanation over some issue and her husband calling up at 10 pm. The woman coach can also be seen shoving Bindu Rani, questioning her regarding a theft and also her accomplishments.
Later, Bindu Rani said that the woman coach picked an argument with her, but claimed that she didn’t know what the reason was. She also said she didn’t know the name of the woman coach. “All I know is that she is the wife of a coach named Yathish. I will first lodge a complaint with the Athletics Association”, she said.
Speaking to Public TV, Bindu Rani explained that she had shared a video of her TedX talk last Friday in a WhatsApp group of coaches. “The wife of coach Yathish tried to assault me claiming that I had given false information in the video which I had posted in the group. I didn’t give any explanation in the WhatsApp group but spoke to her on the phone for a few minutes after which the call got disconnected”, Bindu Rani said.
“Today morning, coach Yathish’s wife came to the stadium and picked a fight with me over the video. I didn’t want to make it a big issue, so I kept quiet. I will lodge a complaint with the Athletics Association”, she said.
Later, reacting to the issue, the woman coach Shwetha G K, a former tennis player, said, “I, my husband Yathish, and Bindu Rani have trained at the Kanteerava Stadium from our younger days, she can’t say she doesn’t know me. Bindu Rani had claimed to be a Khel Ratna awardee and to have won the Best Athlete award 19 times, Asian Games medalist and having won 200 plus medals and had been posting in a WhatsApp group of coaches. Last week, my husband had asked Bindu Rani to clarify her claims as it would make Karnataka proud”.
“Last week, Bindu Rani’s husband called up my husband at 10 pm and threatened him asking why he keen on Bindu Rani’s accomplishments. Her husband is not even a coach and should not have involved himself in the issue. About 15 minutes later, Bindu Rani called my husband again. I answered the phone and spoke to her in a friendly manner. Only because her husband got involved and threatened us, I got involved”, she said.
Coach Yathish said, “On June 30, I saw on an Instagram post that Bindu Rani had posted about her TedX Tak at Krupanidhi Group of Institutions and claimed to have won the Khel Ratna Puraskar, Asian medalist and Best Athlete award 19 times. She had also claimed to have won over 200 medals. I questioned in the WhatsApp group about the achievements so that she could inspire my wards. But her husband called me up and I told him I was not answerable to him and cut the call. Later, Bindu Rani called and threatened us for questioning her achievements. Today morning, Bindu Rani’s husband questioned my wife in singular who she was to ask about her achievements”, he explained.
The couple said they were ready for legal recourse if Bindu Rani were to pursue the issue.