Wrestler Praveen Rana, who was involved in an incident with Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar during the CWG trials few days back, alleged that the Olympian was personally involved in provoking his supporters to maul the junior grappler and his brother.
"After the bout, Sushil pointed towards me and asked his supporters to take care of me and left the mat, he purposely provoked them into harming me. My brother was hurt badly by a chair and we had to take him for a MRI scan," the 25-year-old grappler said at the press conference of his PWl team Veer Marathas here on Monday.
He further added: "We mid-level wrestlers participate in championships and tournaments on our own but when it's the question of CWG, these popular wrestlers come into the limelight saying they want to perform for the country. But if they really want to win medals, why not do at the Asian games or World ChampionshipIJ Because they know it's easier to win medal at the CWG," the flamboyant Rana said.
Previously reluctant to talk on the topic, Rana tried to evade discussing about the scuffle and said he is focused on the PWl fight on 21st January, where he will face none other than Sushil Kumar — representing Delhi Sultans. "I don't want to talk about that incident; my focus is on 21st January's fight. The fight is inevitable. I am working on my weaknesses and strengths, and will like to answer through my performance on the day and I want to remain focused for the bout," said the Veer Maratha-owned wrestler.
But slowly Rana opened up and revealed that this wasn't the first time he had to face such situation as he was threatened not to participate in the nationals by unidentified people in his village, where he was set to fight against Sushil in the Final.
"I was threatened during the Nationals too. It happened in my village when few unknown men came to me and asked me not to fight at the Final. I had an injury at that time and sighting CWG trials were not far, I decided to give a walkover," explained the freestyle wrestler.
Also present at the event was Dalip Singh Rana, popularly known as "The Great Khali", who spoke in favour of Sushil and said he is a "good person" and he is paying for others deed.
"Wrestling should only happen on the mat and not outside it. It's sad how things happened. Sushil Kumar is a nice person, we have known each other for a while now and I know he is not somebody who will stoop so low. This unfortunate incident has tainted his image unnecessarily. It was his fans who did everything and Sushil is sadly paying for their mistakes," said Khali.