Two teenagers crushed to death by rusted basketball poles in India’s medal factory of Haryana
Two teenage basketball players, Hardik and Aman, both Class 10 students, died within days of each other after rusted poles collapsed on them.
Two teenage basketball players, Hardik and Aman, both Class 10 students, died within days of each other after rusted poles collapsed on them.
Two teenage basketball players, Hardik and Aman, both Class 10 students, died within days of each other after rusted poles collapsed on them.
Rohtak: The roar from Haryana’s stadiums has long echoed on the world stage. But in Haryana’s Lakhanmajra and Bahadurgarh this week, it was the sound of metal giving way that wrote the state’s sporting story.
Two teenage basketball players, both Class 10 students, died within days of each other after rusted poles collapsed on them. In a state that sells itself as India’s “sports nursery”, their deaths have turned village courts and district stadiums into crime scenes.
750-kg pole and a 16-year-old chest
On Sunday in Lakhanmajra, Rohtak district, CCTV cameras captured 16-year-old national player Hardik doing what he had done thousands of times before. He sprinted towards the hoop, took off, and hung from the ring in a perfectly routine move.
In seconds, the routine turned lethal. The entire 750-kg basketball structure, corroded at the base, snapped and crashed onto his chest. Hardik died on the spot; doctors at the hospital could only declare him brought dead.
Hardik was a Class 10 student who had won a silver medal at the 47th Sub-Junior National Basketball Championship in Kangra, a bronze at the 49th Sub-Junior Nationals in Hyderabad, and another bronze at the 39th Youth National Championship in Puducherry. His younger brother studies in Class 7. Their father, Sandeep, works with the Food Corporation of India.
Maintenance trapped in files
Four years ago, then Rajya Sabha MP Deepender Hooda reportedly sanctioned ₹11 lakh for repairs and upgradation of the Lakhanmajra stadium from his MPLAD quota. But residents allege that no meaningful maintenance was done, and that the stadium, under the gram panchayat, ran a sports nursery on the crumbling court.
About three months ago, a delegation of players and residents met incumbent Chief Minister Nayab Saini to flag the dangerous condition of the basket structure, but nothing moved on the ground. The tender was finally floated just a week before the accident.
After the death, Rohtak district sports officer Anoop Singh was suspended, and the Lakhanmajra sports nursery was shut. A committee has been formed to investigate the incident and audit equipment, including the basketball coach and the in-charge of Rohtak’s Rajiv Gandhi Stadium. Police have seized CCTV footage and registered a case under Section 194 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which covers deaths caused by negligence. Simultaneously, the sports department has ordered all old, dilapidated and dangerous equipment to be removed from facilities across Haryana.
The irony runs deeper. Rohtak district, which has given India Olympic medallists like Sakshi Malik and Yogeshwar Dutt, has not had a full-time District Sports Officer for the last two years. Anoop Singh, now under suspension, was only acting DSO, not a regular appointee.
Bahadurgarh: Same script, another boy
Barely 60 km away, at the Shaheed Brigadier Hoshiar Singh stadium in Bahadurgarh on the Delhi border, another metal pole told the same story.
Fifteen-year-old Aman, a Class 10 student at Shrirama Bharti Public School and the only brother to two sisters, was practising on Sunday afternoon when a corroded basketball pole gave way and fell on his abdomen, causing massive internal injuries. The structure, by local accounts, had been in a dangerous condition for a long time.
He was rushed to the civil hospital and then referred to PGI Rohtak. His family alleges that delays and negligence in treatment worsened his condition. Aman’s father, Suresh Kumar, is a Group D employee at a government office. The boy died on Monday night; his last rites were performed on Tuesday evening.
Shaken by the twin deaths, the state Olympic association has announced that no sports events will be held in Haryana for three days. Sports minister Gaurav Gautam has called a high-level meeting on November 28 at Tau Devi Lal Stadium in Panchkula, summoning senior officials and all district sports officers to review safety and maintenance.
‘Not an accident, but a killing by the system’
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala has called Hardik’s death “not an accident but a killing by the system”. Rohtak MP Deepender Hooda called the episode “soul-shattering”. Former chief minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda said the current government has turned sports and sportspersons into its “enemies”.
Haryana: A medal factory
The state makes up barely 2% of India’s population. Yet its athletes have repeatedly delivered a disproportionately high share of India’s medals at major international events. At the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Haryana athletes won four of India’s seven medals. The Haryana government says its athletes won five of India's six medals at the Paris 2024 Olympics. Haryana athletes won 28 and 20 medals at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou and the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham respectively. Minakshi Hooda from Rohtak recently won gold at the World Boxing Championship and then at the World Boxing Cup Finals.