Hyderabad, November 05: A woman boxer who represented the State is believed to have ended her life at the Centre of Excellence hostel of the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) in the Lal Bahadur Stadium complex here today.
The boxer’s parents alleged that “humiliation’’ by her coach, Omkar Nath Yadav, drove her to suicide, and SAAP and the State Government have ordered an inquiry into the incident.
AP Boxing Association secretary D B Manmohan said that the State had lost a promising boxer.
“The allegations need to be investigated and the culprits punished,’’ he said.
For their part, the police said the circumstances leading to the death of the boxer, S Amaravathi (20) belonging to Chintal Basthi in the city, are being ascertained.
According to SAAP Vice-Chairman and Managing Director V Radha, around 9:30 a.m., the warden, Kamala, went to Amravati’s room on the second floor and found it locked from inside. When the hostel staff forced open the door, they found her lying dead with froth oozing out of the mouth. Amaravathi had been staying in the women’s hostel for the past three years and was currently the only boxer lodged there.
“Another woman boxer used to stay in the hostel but left some months back following an ankle injury,’’ Radha said.
“A fair and impartial inquiry would be conducted by Dronacharya and Arjuna awardees into the death of Amaravathi,’’ she said.
SAAP officials said they had never received any written or oral complaint from Amaravathi over the alleged humiliation by her coach, even as sports minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy said an inquiry would be conducted into the death.
“We did not find any bottle of poison or sleeping pills in the room.
Samples of the vomit will be sent for forensic examination,’’ Central Zone DCP P Hari Kumar said.
Amaravathi is said to have told her elder brother, Shankar Sai Baba, about being taunted by Omkar Nath Yadav after the recent senior national championship in Jamshedpur.
Actually, she had given a tough fight to Arjuna awardee Suman Yadav and lost by just one point in the 54-57 kg featherweight category.
In the previous nationals, Amaravathi had won a bronze medal for the State.
Shankar told Express: “Omkar Nath was urging my sister to leave the hostel, saying it was better for her to die rather than continue boxing.’’ “We asked Amaravathi to quit the hostel and come home. But she was intent on staying back and and excelling in the sport, for which she had a passion since childhood.’’ The hostel authorities said Amaravathi skipped food in the mess last night, preferring to bring in a parcel from outside.
“She might have mixed poison in it,’’ a police official said.
The body was shifted to the Osmania mortuary for postmortem.
—Agencies