{"id":302,"date":"2026-08-11T11:53:38","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T11:53:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chetana.live\/?p=302"},"modified":"2026-08-11T11:53:38","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T11:53:38","slug":"premeditated-and-gruesome-assault-delhi-high-court-denies-bail-to-olympic-medalist-sushil-kumar-in-murder-case-off-the-field-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chetana.live\/?p=302","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Premeditated and gruesome assault&#8217;: Delhi high court denies bail to Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar in murder case | Off the field News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-133152437,imgsize-406309,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/sushil-kumar.jpg\" alt=\"'Premeditated and gruesome assault': Delhi high court denies bail to Olympic medalist Sushil Kumar in murder case\" title=\"Sushil Kumar\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/delhi-high-court\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Delhi high court<\/a> has refused to grant bail to Olympic wrestler Sushil Kumar in the alleged murder of former junior national wrestling champion Sagar Dhankar.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"3\"\/>Justice Purushaindra Kumar dismissed Kumar&#8217;s bail plea on August 6, citing concerns about his ability to influence witnesses, his conduct before his arrest, the seriousness of the alleged offence and his ability to affect the outcome of the ongoing trial.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"6\"\/>The judge noted that while bail is generally the rule and jail the exception, the case involved a &#8220;premeditated and gruesome assault resulting in death&#8221;. The court said this was supported by the recovery of a firearm, video evidence and other material that is yet to be examined during the trial.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"8\"\/>Kumar&#8217;s counsel sought bail on the ground that circumstances had changed since his earlier bail was cancelled. The lawyer pointed out that Ashok Dhankad, Sagar&#8217;s father whose complaint had led to the earlier cancellation of bail, had not supported the prosecution&#8217;s case during the trial.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"12\"\/>The defence also argued that Kumar had already spent more than five years in custody and that only formal and official witnesses remained to be examined.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"14\"\/>Delhi Police and Dhankar&#8217;s father opposed the bail plea.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"16\"\/>The high court, however, said the defence&#8217;s claim that Sagar&#8217;s father had not supported the prosecution was disputed. It also referred to the Supreme Court&#8217;s earlier decision cancelling Kumar&#8217;s bail, in which it had noted his social standing and influence and the fact that witnesses had turned hostile whenever he was given temporary liberty.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"19\"\/>&#8220;Whether the deposition of Ashok Dhankad (deceased&#8217;s father) does or does not support the prosecution is, moreover, a matter of appreciation of evidence that must await the outcome by the trial court. It cannot be treated as a change in circumstances sufficient to unlock the door that the Supreme Court closed,&#8221; the court said.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"21\"\/>&#8220;In these circumstances, this court is not persuaded that the petitioner has made out a case either for a genuine change in circumstances within the meaning of the liberty reserved by the Supreme Court, or, independently, for the grant of regular bail,&#8221; it concluded.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"24\"\/>Kumar was arrested in May 2021. A sessions court later granted him one week&#8217;s interim bail for knee surgery on July 19, 2023.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"26\"\/>The Supreme Court cancelled his bail on August 13, 2025, setting aside a Delhi high court order. It said Kumar&#8217;s &#8220;domineering influence&#8221; over witnesses and the possibility of delaying the trial proceedings could not be ruled out.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"29\"\/>The High Court had granted Kumar bail on March 4, 2025. Earlier, on February 6, a trial court had rejected his bail plea, saying the possibility that he could influence witnesses &#8220;cannot be ruled out&#8221;.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"32\"\/>In October 2022, the trial court framed charges against Kumar under Indian Penal Code provisions relating to murder, criminal conspiracy, intimidation and rioting with a deadly weapon. Charges were also framed under the Arms Act.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"34\"\/>The trial court had said Dhankar was abducted and taken to the stadium, where he was severely assaulted by several accused persons using baseball and hockey sticks.<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/off-the-field\/premeditated-and-gruesome-assault-delhi-high-court-denies-bail-to-olympic-medalist-sushil-kumar-in-murder-case\/articleshow\/133152292.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Delhi high court has refused to grant bail to Olympic wrestler Sushil Kumar in the alleged murder of former junior national wrestling champion Sagar Dhankar.Justice Purushaindra Kumar dismissed Kumar&rsquo;s bail plea on August 6, citing concerns about his ability to influence witnesses, his conduct before his arrest, the seriousness of the alleged offence and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-302","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-16"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chetana.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chetana.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chetana.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chetana.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chetana.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chetana.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chetana.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chetana.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chetana.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chetana.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}