Authorities swing into action a day after video of swimming coach allegedly beating two girls went viral
A day after video of a swimming coach at the premier Rajpath Club allegedly belting two girl students went viral, the Rajpath club registered a case against case coach Hardik Patel while the Gujarat State Commission for Protection of Child Rights ordered an inquiry.
In the video footage from Thursday, which surfaced on Friday, the club's swimming coach Hardik Patel is allegedly seen beating two girls, one of them aged 11, and the other 15, multiple times.
As the video went viral, the club management suspended Hardik, and also formed a three-member inquiry committee to look into the incident. However, a large number of parents, whose children are undergoing training at the club, came out in Hardik's support. They denied that the girls had been beaten up, and raised doubts about the video itself.
On Saturday, Jagruti Pandya, chairperson of Gujarat State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, took suo motu action, and ordered the District Child Protection Unit (DCPU) to conduct a probe into the case. The Commission also wrote to police and Rajpath Club seeking an inquiry report into the alleged belting incident within five days. State's women and child welfare minister Ganpat Vasava also directed police and the department to probe the incident. In a late evening development, the Rajpath Club authorities registered a case against coach Hardik Patel with Vastrapur police.
Vastrapur police said that the complaint was registered under Justice Juvenile Act.
Earlier in the day, the Vastrapur police submitted a progress report in the case to District Child Protection Unit. The police said it had questioned the club's manager Amit Patel, the two girls, their parents, and also Hardik. In their statements, the two girls told police that the coach had not beaten them and was teaching them 'swimming tricks' by moving his hand while holding the whistle thread as a part of their training. In almost similarly worded statements, both the girls also told police that they had not suffered any injury and that the coach's action was a part of their training.
They also said that they did not want any police case or action to be taken against their coach. Parents of the two girls also repeated the same thing in their statements.
In his statement, coach Hardik Patel also denied beating the two students and said he was simply moving his hands in the air as a part of the girls' training.
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