The three young female athletes, who survived an attempted suicide bid after alleged harassment by seniors at the SAI Centre in Kerala, are stable now even as a medical board was constituted by the Sports Ministry. “We have constituted a medical board (for the inquiry into the incident) and our priority is to save the lives of those athletes (girls),” Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said on the sidelines of a conference in Delhi.
In a tragic turn of events, a young athlete Aparna Ramabhadran died and three of her colleagues were battling for life after they ate a poison fruit under an apparent suicide pact following alleged harassment by seniors at the Sports Authority of India centre in Kerala. The condition of the three athletes, who survived, is said to be stable. Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, who visited the girls at the hospital, promised an unbiased probe.
Alapuzha Medical college Hospital superintendent Santosh Raghavan said that the three girls continue to be critical, but their condition had stabilised. However, there is no specific antidote for the poison they consumed. “We are trying to treat the main target organ, the heart. Teleconference with medical experts of the AIIMS, Delhi, was being held,” he said.
Aparna, the girl who lost her life, had been undergoing training at the water sports training centre of SAI for the past five years. The senior athletes, who have been accused of harassment by the girls, claimed that they did nothing that could have caused any stress.