Ex-Punjabi varsity sports head Sharma removed by EUSAI

Gagan K Teja 

Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 25

In a major setback for Dr Rajkumar Sharma, the former Director (Sports) of Punjabi University, Elite Universal Sports Alliance India Private Limited (EUSAI) has terminated his services as EUSAI’s president.

Elite Universal Sports Alliance, a Miami-based sports management firm, had hired Sharma after his retirement from Punjabi University.

The termination of Sharma’s services follows allegations of forgery against him in the courts of India. EUSAI CEO Richard Whelen said that due to the legal cases against Sharma, “obvious stringent scrutiny and due diligence will occur”, and thus Sharma’s position may not be legally tenable. 

Sharma was booked on August 13, 2015, for allegedly faking sports certificates in order to get a job as a lecturer with the Punjab government in 1991. 

According to the FIR registered against him, Sharma had provided two qualification certificates while applying for a job with the Punjab government. It’s alleged that the two certificates were fake and did not really belong to Sharma.

Cooked up?

When contacted, Sharma said that EUSAI had “cooked up” a false story against him in order to save Dr Gurdeep Singh, joint secretary of the Association of Indian Universities (AIU). Sharma alleged that in fact, Singh had forged the signature of another senior AIU official to sign an MoU with EUSAI, and that Sharma himself had dared to expose him.

“I had joined as EUSAI’s president in May 2016 and the legal cases against me have been pending since 2015. Therefore, it is a totally lame excuse,” Sharma said. “It was a politically motivated move as I had gone to Bhubaneswar yesterday as the annual general body meeting of AIU was to begin today. I apprised the AIU president about how Dr Gurdeep Singh had forged the signature of AIU secretary general Furqan Qamar to sign a memorandum of understanding between AIU and EUSAI regarding Elite eSports of India.”

Sharma alleged that when Singh got to know this, he and Whelen terminated his services so that “their misdeeds remain hidden”.

“EUSAI has collected crores in the name of promoting sports in India but have done practically nothing for Indian sports, which is why I was often at loggerheads with their officials,” added Sharma.

He said he is all set to get a police case registered against Singh.  

When contacted, Singh refuted the allegations. “I have no role to play in this agreement (MoU) and I am open to all kinds of inquiries,” Singh said. “If he has any proof, he should go ahead with it. I am surprised that he is trying to entangle me in this controversy.”