Mumbai: Bombay high court refused to grant anticipatory bail to the former president of a sports body who was booked for allegedly sexually harassing and stalking a woman athlete in 2023.“Considering the nature of the allegations against the applicant, I am not inclined to release the applicant on anticipatory bail,” said Justice Nitin Borkar on March 4. In June 2022, a mixed martial arts training centre run by the athlete and her husband became associated with Mixed Martial Arts India Federation, whose president was the applicant. In Nov 2023, while the athlete was in Albania for International Mixed Martial Arts’s judge/referee exam, the applicant called her to his hotel room on the pretext of reviewing a presentation. While she was leaving, he “hugged and kissed her on her cheeks”. Then, he allegedly started sending her repeated messages, such as ‘love you’ and ‘my sweetheart’. He told her “if she would have been single, he would have proposed to her”, and “inappropriately” touched her during various events.Senior advocate Rajiv Chavan, representing the applicant, said there was a delay in lodging the FIR. Even if the entire allegations are accepted at their face value, the essential ingredients of the offences invoked are not satisfied, he said. He claimed the FIR was a counterblast to disciplinary action against her husband for assaulting a senior coach in Albania and for making defamatory statements against his client. He said on July 18, 2025, HC granted him interim protection. He has cooperated with the investigation, which is substantially complete, he said. But prosecutor P H Gaikwad and the complainant’s advocates, Aadil and Aalam Parsurampuria, opposed relief for the applicant. They said the FIR was registered following HC’s June 18, 2025, directions. HC had observed that the messages “demonstrate sexual overtures”. Justice Borkar perused HC’s observations made after it noticed the athlete crying. She “informed us that she was being sexually harassed and has suffered great anguish at the hands of [the applicant]”, it had noted. She was compelled to reply to his Instagram and WhatsApp messages “and if she refused, she was threatened that she would not be permitted to participate in any sport of the federation”, it had said. HC was then told the applicant would step down from the post. Thereafter, Justice Borkar said considering the nature of the allegations, he was rejecting the application. However, on Chavan’s request to enable his client to approach Supreme Court against the order, he directed that the July 2025 interim protection shall continue for four weeks.
