Five years after the infamous ‘slapgate’ incident, when Harbhajan Singh had allegedly slapped Santhakumaran Sreesanth, the latter on Friday made an explosive claim stating that the entire incident was planned and that Harbhajan was a “backstabbing person”.
“To be whr I am...I’ve no complaints...but now I want u all to know the truth. He (Bhajji) never slapped me. The video will show u all..wt he did,” Sreesanth used Twitter to make a series of comments.
“All blamed me for getting emotional ..IJIJ c mon who doesn’t get emotional whn u know the person who u worship is a backstabbing person,” he tweeted. Sreesanth also said that the video footage should be out so that everyone knows the truth.
“I don’t want Bhajji to feel bad now… I need to tell the truth to the world. What happened was bad. It’s not my fault at all,” the cricketer added.
The pacer said that Harbhajan did not slap, but elbowed him. “I want the world to see it. When I went to shake hands after the match, he had lost it, he had already planned to hit me (elbow me),” Sreesanth said.
While Harbhajan refused to comment, Justice (retd) Sudhir Nanavati, who was appointed by the BCCI to probe the ‘slapgate’ incident, said there was no provocation from Sreesanth’s part, but Harbhajan tried to slap him for the second time again but was restrained by security guards. “In the video footage, I have seen Harbhajan use the backside of his right palm to give him (Sreesanth) a slap on the right side of his face. It was clear cut, it was there to be seen in the video footage,” said Nanavati.
“He (Harbhajan) had admitted it before me. What I have seen in the frame of the video was that Harbhajan after giving him a slap was coming back once again to hit him but at that time, two security personnel had stopped him,” said Nanavati.