3 min learnNew DelhiUp to date: Mar 20, 2026 08:25 AM IST
A senior Navy officer has questioned the choice of an Military boxer over the Navy’s pugilist within the Indian squad for the upcoming Asian Championships in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
The ten-member squad for the March 28-April 11 Asian meet contains 9 Military boxers — the tenth is a boxer from Rajasthan, not from the defence companies. The Navy’s Hitesh Gulia misplaced out to the Military’s Deepak within the 70-kg class.
In a letter to Secretary (Sports activities) Hari Ranjan Rao, a Vice Admiral answerable for personnel-related issues has alleged that the choice committee appointed by the Boxing Federation of India (BFI) had two members from the “similar organisation whose athletes have been competing for choice”, thus elevating considerations about “battle of curiosity” and “perceived lack of neutrality”.
The letter states that Gulia had received the higher of Deepak ultimately yr’s Inter-Companies Championship in addition to the 2026 Nationals.
“Regardless of this demonstrated superiority and worldwide medal report, Gulia has been positioned under Deepak,” writes the Vice Admiral. Expressing concern concerning the BFI’s choice course of, he alleges that it “lacks open choice trials” and in addition raises “non-availability of video recording of bouts”.
Denying the allegations, BFI Government Director Colonel Arun Malik has claimed that other than the boys’s head coach, CA Kuttappa, no person from the Military was a part of the choice committee.
“There is no such thing as a one within the choice committee from the Military. Even Kuttappa retired a few years in the past,” Malik advised The Indian Categorical.
READ MORE | Indian squad at Asian Boxing Championships 2026
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He mentioned the boys’s head coach, who’s in his third stint, had additionally labored with Beijing Olympics bronze medallist Vijender Singh. “You possibly can’t say that if the coach is from the Military, we are able to’t put him within the choice committee,” Malik mentioned.
Kuttappa didn’t reply to questions on the problem.
Malik mentioned there wasn’t a lot of a distinction between Gulia and Deepak, and it’s within the Federation’s curiosity to select the very best boxer obtainable.
“I and my workforce could be silly to select sub-standard folks simply because we need to decide any individual particular,” mentioned Malik. “Deepak, on this weight class, throughout the evaluation, outperformed everyone in all sparring classes.”
In his letter, the Vice Admiral has requested the Sports activities Secretary to intervene and think about a evaluation of the choice course of the place “… efficiency in nationwide and worldwide competitions in addition to head-to-head outcomes obtained acceptable weightage”.
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He has identified {that a} related evaluation of gamers earlier than the 2024 Paris Olympics resulted in “Indian boxing returning with out a medal”.
In the meantime, the BFI, in a press release, defended its choice course of. Denying the cost about lack of video recordings, it mentioned all matches have been “duly recorded and recordings have been shared with the Sports activities Authority of India”. It added that it was not customary observe to share bout recordings with the boxers or their camps.
It additionally mentioned that sparring bouts held throughout evaluation weren’t thought-about aggressive and the aim was to guage, slightly than decide a winner or a loser.
“These aren’t aggressive bouts however structured sparring classes performed as a part of an analysis framework. The aim of those sparring rounds is to not declare winners or losers, however to evaluate athletes throughout a number of efficiency parameters,” it mentioned.