35th National Games 2015: Chandigarh netball team thrown out for forgery

Thiruvananthapuram: The netball team of Chandigarh has been disqualified from the ongoing 35^th National Games after it allegedly tried to get a participation certificate in the name of a non-participating player.

Netball Competition Director Lalit Jiwani lodged a complaint in this regard with the local police here for cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery and criminal conspiracy against the Netball Association of Chandigarh including the players, coach, manager, executives and selection committee and other officials concerned.

According to National Games Secretariat officials, after registering 14 members, Chandigarh only brought 13 for a photo session of the teams on Wednesday. "When asked about the remaining player, the team officials said he was unwell and hence moved out of the stadium. But an enquiry carried out by the Netball Federation of India officials found that the said player had not even arrived in Kerala for the Games. But somebody else had been found to be signing under his name in the records in these days," a National Games official told PTI.

In his complaint to the police, Competition Director alleged that, "the intent of Team Chandigarh was to get a certificate of the National Games issued in favour of a person who had not even participated in the event. It is also possible that the accreditation card of the said player might have been taken purposefully for some other illegal purposes."

Following Chandigarh's disqualification, Karnataka got a direct entry into the semifinals, but lost to Kerala in the positional play off held on Thursday.