Hockey skipper Sardar Singh denies engagement with UK woman

IN A TIGHT SPOT AFTER A YOUNG BRITISH NATIONAL filed a complaint of "sexual exploitation" against him, Indian hockey team captain Sardar Singh denied on Wednesday he was engaged to the woman.

However, Sardar did not deny knowning the woman from Leeds.

"I will first see what report the police have written. Only then will I get back to reply all your questions. I was not engaged (to the complainant)," a visibly disturbed Sardar Singh told the media on Wednesday as he came out of the Chandigarh airport.

"I have just come from a game last night. I am concentrating on the next game," Sardar said, as he pulled himself away from the media questioning.

He is scheduled to participate in a match in the ongoing Premier Hockey League.

Sardar's father Gurnam Singh told reporters in Haryana's Sirsa district that his son knew the woman but denied both were engaged.

The Punjab Police is investigating a complaint from the British national who alleged she was "sexually exploited by her fiance Sardar Singh".

The complainant was the first Sikh player in Britain's under-19 women's hockey team, said Ludhiana police.

Investigations in the case have been marked to the Koom Kalan police station in Ludhiana district. Police station incharge S.S. Nagra confirmed the matter was under probe following the complaint.

The woman had complained to Ludhiana Police Commissioner P.S. Umranangal who marked an enquiry into it.

The woman alleged that Sardar Singh got engaged to her in 2014 and she became pregnant last year as a result of their physical relations. She said the hockey skipper forced her to go for an abortion and began avoiding her thereafter.

The complainant said she met Sardar in 2012 after becoming friends through a social networking site. She claimed they began living together after their engagement.

In the past, Sardar Singh had posted tweets and his photographs with the British woman.