Team India hockey player Varun Kumar, 28, has been booked under the stringent POCSO Act by the Bengaluru Police after a woman accused the Olympian of sexually abusing her multiple times when she was a minor, a senior police officer Tuesday said. In a complaint filed Monday, the 22-year-old woman has alleged that she came in contact with Varun in 2018 through Instagram and met him when he was training at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Bengaluru. At the time she was 17 years old and the player raped her on multiple occasions promising her of marriage, she has alleged. Varun, an Arjuna award winner, was recently promoted as a DSP in the Punjab Police by the state government. It was learnt that Varun, who landed in Bhubaneswar for the FIH Pro League with the rest of the team Monday, left the pre-tournament training camp Tuesday after the news broke. S Girish, DCP, West, Bengaluru Police said, “The case under the POCSO Act, and Sections 376 (rape) and 420 (cheating) has been registered on the complaint of the woman. She has alleged that at the time of incident, she was a minor of around 17 years of age. She has stated that she and Varun had fallen in love. Later on, he promised to marry her and now, he is refusing to marry her.” Varun or his family did not respond to calls for comment. He hails from Himachal Pradesh and shifted to Jalandhar to train at a hockey academy. He made his debut for India in 2017.
