India’s CWG TT squad drops Ghosh after rape allegation

NEW DELHI: India on Friday dropped table tennis star Soumyajit Ghosh from its Commonwealth Games (CWG) squad after a teenager accused him of rape, officials said.

The Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI) executive said in a statement said that 24-year-old Ghosh had been placed under “provisional suspension”.“During the suspension, the paddler will not be able to participate in any tournament, national or international,” it said.

Ghosh’s future will now depend on the “final outcome of the police investigation and court verdict on the alleged rape charges against him by the teenager”, the TTFI added. The complainant in eastern West Bengal state told police that they became friends through a social networking site in 2014, and Ghosh promised to marry her after she turned 18.

Ghosh has denied the allegations. “We were together but then I wanted to focus on my career so I told her ‘it is very difficult to be with you’,” he told Press Trust of India. “After I broke things off with her, she started blackmailing me.”