The dangers of refereeing

The high-voltage action and drama during the recent football World Cup brought back flashes of the hullabaloo I witnessed as ASP, Ambala. It happened in December 1976 during the annual Haryana Police Games at the Madhuban Police Complex near Karnal. I had joined at Ambala in the beginning of that year and the SP was keen that I must participate in the games with the policemen. ‘The best way to know your men is to play sports with them,’ he would insist.

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The games used to be a week-long carnival. I was deputed there two weeks in advance to assist the organisers and act as incharge of the Ambala Range police contingent.

Though I would play basketball, it was kabaddi that stole the show in these tournaments. We had our first kabaddi match against the Armed Police Range team. A sizeable number of spectators had gathered. The teams entered the ground with a lot of fanfare. The match started on a cautious note. Then suddenly a ‘raider’ from Ambala lit up the ground. He twisted, turned, dodged — like Messi — and with a lightning flying kick touched many a defender and was back to the central line. The referee signalled two defenders to be out but the raider insisted that he’d touched four of them. All hell broke loose. The team’s supporters were in a frenzy. The referee was mobbed. The burly veteran players rushed in to protect him. I had to shout and threaten the players to restore a semblance of peace. ‘The match has been stopped. The jury of appeal will decide the issue,’ I shouted.

Years later, I was heading the Haryana Police as DGP. I would peruse the daily crime situation report early in the day. One morning, I was shocked to read about the murder of a referee on a kabaddi ground. The panchayat department of a district on the GT Road was conducting a block-level kabaddi tournament. Teams of two villages were pitted against each other. A considerable number of villagers had gathered. The referee was the sarpanch of a neighbouring village. The ill-fated match started in a surcharged atmosphere. As it often happens, a decision of the referee was resented by one of the teams and its volatile supporters. The heated arguments led to tempers running so high that a few of the highly provoked ones charged at the referee. One of them took out a knife and stabbed him. The referee was rushed to hospital but was declared brought dead. I immediately called up the SP and let out my anger and anguish at his failure to anticipate and prevent it. It rankled with me long after. The police later arrested four persons and they were tried for murder.