Banned For Life, Wrestler Satender Says Referee Provoked and Slapped Him First

Satender’s entire village has come out in support of the wrestler after he explained them his part of the story.

Indian wrestler Satender Malik received a lifetime ban on 19 May, for slapping international referee Jabir Singh during the Commonwealth Games trials in New Delhi. The incident took place in the presence of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

However, the wrestler claims that it was referee Jabir who slapped him first and provoked him. Videos of the incident, that have since been shared widely on social media, also suggest that it was the referee who raised his hand first.

Satender's entire village in Haryana has come out in support of the wrestler after he explained to the panchayat his part of the story and showed evidence.

Talking with IANS, Satender said, “The members of panchayat will now meet WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh ji on Monday and request to uplift life-ban. My life is destroyed. I tell you what happened, I went to the referee and said in his ear 'tanne ke mil gaya mahari zindagi kharab karke (What did you achieve after ruining my life?)'. He got angry and slapped me, you can see in the video as well. He first slapped me. I never abused him or said anything wrong to him.”

Satender also uploaded a video of the incident on twitter and appealed to PM Modi to help him save his career.

माननीय श्री @narendramodi जी बहुत उम्मीद के साथ आपको दोबारा ट्वीट कर रहा हूँ एक खिलाड़ी होने के नाते ओर एक देश का सैनिक होने के नाते मुझे न्याय दिलवाए ताकि मेरा विश्वास आपमें ओर देश के क़ानून में बना रहे मैं समझता हूँ आपको पूरा देश देखना हैं पर मेरी भी जीवनभर की मेहनत का सवाल है pic.twitter.com/WDXaeUXZj4

— Satender Malik (@SatenderMalik22) May 19, 2022

During the trials, Satender was leading 3-0 in the deciding bout, when his opponent Mohit affected a 'take-down' move and also pushed Satender out of the mat for another point. However, referee Virender Malik did not award two points to Mohit for the 'takedown' move and gave only one point for the pushout.

Mohit then challenged the referee’s decision and senior referee Jagbir Singh, through video replays ruled that Mohit should be given 3 points. The score thus became 3-all and remained like that till the end. Mohit was declared the winner since he had scored the last point of the bout.

Satender then walked across the mat, towards Jagbir and allegedly slapped him. The WFI officials then imposed a lifetime ban on Satender However, later a video went viral where it can be seen that Jagbir first slammed the wrestler before the latter slapped him.