Accused of sexual harassment, Haryana Sports Minister Sandeep Singh Sunday handed over his portfolio to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. The former national men's hockey team captain Olympian's life journey was made into a biopic, Soorma, in 2018. Actor Diljit Dosanjh played Sandeep Singh on screen in the Hindi film which was released on July 13, 2018. Directed by Shaad Ali, the film had Taapsee Pannu and Angad Bedi in other main roles. Even though the film could not achieve overwhelming commercial success and received only mixed reviews nationally, it was widely appreciated in Punjab and Haryana. The film acted as a medium for Sandeep’s real-life journey to reach common households. The film focused on his struggle and hard work to enter the national hockey team, the ill-fated spinal injury days before a World Cup, and the spirited comeback after the treatment and rehabilitation. On August 22, 2006, days before the men's World Cup tournament in Germany, Sandeep was accidentally shot in the spine by a Railway Protection Force guard while travelling in the Kalka Shatabdi train along with teammate Rajpal Singh. He was admitted to PGIMER in Chandigarh for days. He spent more than two years in rehabilitation followed by training. Two years later, he returned to the field at the 2008 Sultan Azlan Shah Cup, in which he emerged as the top scorer. After the release of the biopic, Sandeep started to be known as Soorma and in an interview, while describing the moment when he was hit by the bullet in the spinal cord, he had said “it felt like someone had inserted a hot iron rod on my back”. “When I tried to move my legs, they felt dead. But I said to myself that I don’t want to die,” he had said. The drag-flicker from Shahabad of Kurukshetra district in Haryana joined the BJP in 2019 ahead of the Haryana Assembly polls and won from Pehowa. Actor Diljit Dosanjh, who played Sandeep’s character, had said before the release: “Sandeep bhaji and his family had two choices, either to get the policeman who fired accidentally punished or focus on his comeback. He showed such a big heart that he never tried to get that policeman punished legally. He and his family instead focused on his comeback and that was why he stood on his feet again and was able to come back and make India proud on the hockey field. He acted like a real-life Soorma.” Hours after the Chandigarh Police registered an FIR against Sandeep Singh, he announced Sunday he had handed over his portfolio to Khattar on “moral grounds”. Following a complaint by a junior woman coach for sexual harassment, the Chandigarh Police Saturday booked him for stalking, illegal confinement, sexual harassment, and criminal intimidation. The minister rejected the allegations, terming them baseless. The minister’s statement has come amid protests against him in Haryana. The woman coach accused him of sending her inappropriate messages, touching her inappropriately and harassment.
