Husband of Olympian shooter Anjum Moudgil, Ankush, accused of sexual assault!
Husband of two-time Olympian pistol shooter, Anjum Moudgil, Ankush Bharadwaj, has been accused of sexual assault of a 17-year-old female shooter at a Faridabad hotel. Ankush is also a pistol shooting national coach. The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has already suspended him. The female shooter alleged that she was sexually assaulted by Bharadwaj at a hotel in Surajkund, Faridabad. He was booked by the Haryana Police following an FIR lodged by the victim’s family. According to the FIR, the incident took place at a Faridabad hotel where Ankush summoned the female athlete for a discussion about her performance. Under the observation of the coach, the female athlete was one of the shooters who attended the national preparatory camp during the shooting nationals at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi. Bharadwaj hails from Ambala and started his shooting journey from an NCC (National Cadet Corps) camp in 2005. He went to the Jaspal Rana Institute of Shooting and Sports in Dehradun in order to hone his skills and was coached by Jaspal’s younger brother, Subhash Rana. He won three gold medals at the All-India GV Mavalankar Shooting competition, held in Agra in 2007. He went on to win the 50m pistol gold at the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune in 2008. He kept winning medals at the international stage before he was banned by the Sports Authority of India (SAI) for testing positive for a beta-blocker in 2010. He made his comeback in 2012 and helped India win gold in the 25m centre-fire pistol team event in the International Shooting Competition of Hannover in 2016. Bharadwaj is currently a national pistol coach, and he also runs the Salvo Shooting Range in Mohali. He provides private coaching to selected shooters. According to the victim’s family, this was not the first time Ankush has been accused of sexual assault.
