Birendra Lakra. (File Photo)
Birender Lakra was on Tuesday accused by the father of the deceased of being involved in the murder of his childhood friend Anand Toppo.
The friend of the senior India hockey player was found dead inside his flat in Bhubaneswar in February 2022 and the deceased’s father Bandhan has accused the state police of shielding the hockey player as he worked as a DSP at one point of time.
Bandhan said he has been struggling to file an FIR for the past four months, but the state police did not help him, forcing him to make his allegations public.
The 32-year-old Lakra was part of India’s bronze medal winning team at the Tokyo Games and also led the national team in the Asia Cup, where the team won a bronze medal.
“We and Birendra were neighbours, so naturally Anand was his childhood friend. On February 28, we got a call from Birendra that Anand was unconscious and he was taking him to the hospital. Later he informed us that Anand was no more Well, Bandhan Toppo told PTI.
“We asked him what had happened but he asked us to come to Bhubaneswar. We reached there the next day and we were taken to the local police station where the officer told us that Anand had committed suicide. But there was no suicide note.
“After a lot of insistence, we were shown Anand’s body and at first glance I saw hand marks on his neck. But the postmortem report said it was a suicide,” Bandhan said.
In recent history, Lakra is the second player to be charged with murder. Star wrestler Sushil Kumar is already in Tihar Jail for the murder of fellow wrestler Sagar Dhankhar, who was a junior national champion.
Anand was reportedly found dead in flat number 401 of Ayush Radium in Infocity, Patiya, which belongs to Lakra, while reports claimed that only Birendra Lakra and a girl named Manjit Tete were present in the flat at that time, The victim’s father begged to be separated.
He claimed, “There were four people in the flat when my son was murdered. There was also a third person, who is now being protected.”
“I tried to register an FIR in the local police station but they did not entertain me saying that it was a suicide. Then after few days I went to DCP office and lodged complaint but four months for any action After waiting till then, we finally decided to approach the media,” said the grieving father.
“I want justice for my son. I don’t trust Odisha Police as they are trying to save Lakra as he is a big man and one of them. I want an independent probe into my son’s mysterious death “
According to sources, the incident was the result of a love triangle, although both Lakra and Anand, who played as defenders, were married.
Bandhan claimed, “Anand died after 12 days of marriage. He got married on February 16 and died on 28. He was happy with his marriage.”
When asked if Anand had any relationship with Manjeet, Bandhan did not give a clear answer.
“I don’t know anything like that. But they were studying together in Bhubaneswar. If anything happened after that, I don’t know. Anand never told us anything about that,” he said.
Lakra is currently training at the national camp in Bengaluru under former India captain Sardar Singh and may be asked to leave the national camp in the wake of the controversy.
Apart from Olympic bronze, Lakra is a two-time Asian Games medalist, where he won gold in 2014 Incheon and bronze in 2018 Jakarta. He was also a part of the silver medal winning Indian team at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.
(Inputs PTI)