It was nothing less than humiliation that was handed out in closed envelopes to three boxers who had brought glory for the country in Commonwealth Games.
Akhil Kumar, Jitender Kumar and Vijender were invited by the All India Boxing Federation at a felicitation ceremony of Commonwealth Games Table Tennis squad last night but while the paddlers got the cash awards, the envelope of the boxers turned out to be stark empty!
The boxers said they were invited to the ceremony at the last minute and were not told about any cash awards, but the boxing federation was at a loss to explain why empty envelopes, which just had the name of the boxer written on it, were handed in the name of cash awards.
"All the three boxers are from Bhiwani and Abhay Chautala, who is president of Indian Amateur Boxing Federation, was supposed to give an award of Rs. 25,000. Since the event was organised in haste, the boxers were later called to his residence
But his claims were refuted by the boxers, who said they had not received any money till now.
"We have not got any money. We were told to come to the residence of Ajay Chautala but we could not go there because we were too late after the event," said one of the boxers.
Akhil was the only boxer to claim a gold medal in 54 kg section. Vijender won the silver in 69 kg while Jitender took bronze in 51 kg
Abhay's brother Ajay Chautala, who is President of Table Tennis Federation of India, gave away Rs 1 lakh and a gold coin to Sharath Kamal, who had won the men's singles title while the men's and women's team were also awarded cash prizes.
Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and BCCI official I S Bindra were also present at the felicitation ceremony.