Indian Teams Prohibited From Participating In International Tournaments Due To Blunder By Amateur Kabaddi Federation Of India (AKFI)

Amateur Kabaddi Federation Of India (AKFI), is the governing body for Kabaddi in India. In August 2018, Late Janardan Singh Gehlot who was declared as ‘life president’ & Mridula Bhadauria who was AKFI president both were removed by the Delhi High Court after the petition was filed by former Kabaddi player.

The petition had accused both of them of issuing fake certificates of participation, charging money for a selection of players, sexual harassment & running parallel organizations like the Asian Kabaddi Federation & International Kabaddi Federation.

After their removal, Delhi high court appointed Justice SP Garg as administrator of AKFI to administer the federation & conduct elections. The elections were held in December 2023, where Vibhor Jain as President & Jitendra Singh as General Secretary were elected.

Now International Kabaddi Federation (IKF), has prohibited Indian players from participating in the global tournaments. It has been done due to failure of AKFI to constitute a duly elected body to run its day-to-day affairs.

It was revealed in the petition filed at Delhi High court, that AKFI it still running by administrator. In his letter to Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president P T Usha, IKF’s chief Vinod Kumar Tiwari wrote: “It has come to our knowledge that the administrator of AKFI has conducted the elections to the AKFI on 24.12.2023 and one managing committee has already been elected, yet the management of the AKFI continues to be with the administrator.

This is a clear violation of the conditions for affiliation to the IKF. Therefore, it has been decided that the teams sent by the AKFI shall not be allowed to participate in the 1st Senior men’s World Beach Kabaddi Championships to be held from Sep 12 to 18 in Iran and 6th Asian Indoor and Martial Art Games to be held from Nov 23 to 28 in Thailand.”