Woman wrestler shot dead in Sonepat; identity causes confusion

Sonepat/Gonda, Nov 10: A university-level wrestler named Nisha Dahiya and her brother were killed and their mother suffered injuries as some assailants opened fire on them at a wrestling academy in Haryana's Sonipat district on Wednesday, following which angry villagers set the facility on fire.

Nisha Dahiya's murder news turns out to be fake, wrestler releases video

The murdered woman's identity created confusion as several reports initially mistook her for her more famous namesake who won a bronze medal in the recent under-23 world championship in Belgrade.

Police suspected that the coach-cum-owner of the academy in Sonipat's Halalpur area is behind the firing incident, and added that the motive is being investigated and efforts are being made to nab him. Sonipat Assistant Superintendent of Police Mayank Gupta said Nisha Dahiya (20) and her brother Suraj (18) were killed in the incident, but rejected reports that the slain woman was the bronze-medallist wrestler.

She was a university-level wrestler who had been practising in the Sushil Kumar Wrestling Academy, Gupta added. But there was chaos online as several reports initially identified Dahiya as the world medallist, who had been congratulated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi just this morning for her performance in Belgrade some days back.

The Wrestling Federation of India shared a video in which the fast-rising wrestler can be seen stating that she is in Gonda in Uttar Pradesh for the National Championships and fine. Sitting next to her in the video is 2016 Olympic bronze-medallist Sakshi Malik.

"The girl who died was a newcomer hailing from Halalpur village in Sonipat. She is also Nisha Dahiya but not the one who went to the U-23 world championship," coach Randhir Malik, who travelled with the Indian women's team to Belgrade, told PTI. "That Nisha is safe. It's fake news that she has died," he added.

According to the police, the incident took place around 2 pm and five to six rounds of bullets were fired allegedly by coach Pawan and some other persons. The body of Nisha Dahiya was found lying near the gate of the academy and her brother's body was around 100-200 metres away, said the police. Their injured mother has been admitted to the PGIMS hospital in Rohtak, the police said.

The deceased were children of Dhanpati and Dayanand Dahiya of Halalpur village in Kharkhoda subdivision, said the police. Angry over the incident, villagers of Halalpur set the academy on fire, the police said, adding that a heavy police force was deployed there. The bodies have been sent for post-mortem.