New Delhi: A Delhi Court today framed charges relating to murder, attempt to murder, rioting, unlawful assembly, and other sections, including criminal conspiracy, against Olympian Sushil Kumar and 17 others in the murder case of junior wrestler Sagar Dhankar. 

Delhi’s Rohini court has also framed charges against two accused who are on the run.

After being on the run for nearly three weeks, Sushil Kumar was arrested for his alleged involvement in the death of a 23-year-old wrestler at Chhatrasal Stadium, along with co-accused Ajay from outer Delhi’s Mundka area.

According to police, the 37-year-old champion wrestler and his associates assaulted fellow wrestler Sagar Dhankar, 23, and his two friends on May 4 at the national capital’s Chhatrasal Stadium. All three had to be hospitalised. Mr Dhankar later died of his injuries.

Delhi Police, in its status report, said the accused is the kingpin of the present case and had conspired with other co-accused had arranged weapons and men, including dreaded criminals of Haryana and Delhi, to kidnap the victims from different areas, to commit the offence.

On May 18 last year, Sushil Kumar had approached a court in Delhi’s Rohini seeking protection from arrest, claiming that the probe against him was biased and that no injuries caused to the victim were attributable to him. The court, however, dismissed his anticipatory bail plea, saying he was “prima facie the main conspirator” and allegations against him were serious in nature.

Delhi Police had in March this year opposed Sushil Kumar’s bail petition in Delhi High Court, saying witnesses in the case are so terrified of the champion wrestler and his associates that one of them had moved the court seeking protection.

In the bail plea, Sushil Kumar emphasised that the police left no stone unturned to present a “false and guilty image” of him and fed false information to the media to wrongfully establish a connection between him and renowned gangsters.

Sushil Kumar won a bronze medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and a silver medal in the 2012 London Olympics.