Child marathon runner's coach accused of torture.
August 15th 2007 01:30
The coach of Budhia Singh; the 6 year old Indian marathon runner has been charged with torturing the child.
Biranchi Das, who also owns a judo school in the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneshwar is in police custody and faces accusations from the mother of the child that he tied up and beat Budhia as well as withheld food from the youngster.
She alleged that she found scars on Budhia’s body when he returned home 10 days ago after living with Das for the previous two years.
Budhia Singh ran his way into the record books last year after he covered over 40 miles in 7 hours – turning him into a popular hero for many Indians and he enjoyed widespread media attention.
His face could be seen on many front pages of newspapers and television commercials camera crews would follow him on his morning runs.
This despite being officially banned from competing by the Indian government after it declared his marathon racing to be torture.
Doctors feared for the boy’s life citing renal failure as a probable cause of death if he continued to race whilst he was currently suffering from high blood pressure, anaemia and malnourishment.
Budhia was also recently banned from competing in a 500km walkathon, much to the disappointment of many fans who had lined the course to cheer him on.
His fame has sparked many copycat child athletes with predictably disastrous consequences with many collapsing midway through marathons in apparent agony.
Mrityunjaya Mandal, aged eight, ran 37 miles before blacking out last September and Anastasia Barla, 10, set out to try to run 65 miles stopped after nearly collapsing eight hours in.
Das maintains that the charges brought against him are a conspiracy concocted by the government’s child welfare department but many of the public suspect money to be the root cause of the trouble.
Budhia was born into poverty with his father a beggar and his mother’s only income coming from washing dishes in the homes of richer people.
He was sold for the equivalent of £10 ($20) before his first birthday but was then spotted by Mr. Das who promptly enrolled him a strict training regime that gave rise to the child prodigy.
Budhia was so successful that Das set up a trust fund to help fund slum children in sport and to look after Budhia’s family financially.
This trust fund is now meant to be worth tens of thousands of pounds and it could be this money that has sparked the investigation as Das would have no legal right to it if he was imprisoned and it would fall into the hands of the child’s mother.
(The above image was taken by Shirley Buxton of www.flickr.com and is used under the GNU Free Document License.)
Biranchi Das, who also owns a judo school in the eastern Indian city of Bhubaneshwar is in police custody and faces accusations from the mother of the child that he tied up and beat Budhia as well as withheld food from the youngster.
She alleged that she found scars on Budhia’s body when he returned home 10 days ago after living with Das for the previous two years.
Budhia Singh ran his way into the record books last year after he covered over 40 miles in 7 hours – turning him into a popular hero for many Indians and he enjoyed widespread media attention.
His face could be seen on many front pages of newspapers and television commercials camera crews would follow him on his morning runs.
This despite being officially banned from competing by the Indian government after it declared his marathon racing to be torture.
Doctors feared for the boy’s life citing renal failure as a probable cause of death if he continued to race whilst he was currently suffering from high blood pressure, anaemia and malnourishment.
Budhia was also recently banned from competing in a 500km walkathon, much to the disappointment of many fans who had lined the course to cheer him on.
His fame has sparked many copycat child athletes with predictably disastrous consequences with many collapsing midway through marathons in apparent agony.
Mrityunjaya Mandal, aged eight, ran 37 miles before blacking out last September and Anastasia Barla, 10, set out to try to run 65 miles stopped after nearly collapsing eight hours in.
Das maintains that the charges brought against him are a conspiracy concocted by the government’s child welfare department but many of the public suspect money to be the root cause of the trouble.
Budhia was born into poverty with his father a beggar and his mother’s only income coming from washing dishes in the homes of richer people.
He was sold for the equivalent of £10 ($20) before his first birthday but was then spotted by Mr. Das who promptly enrolled him a strict training regime that gave rise to the child prodigy.
Budhia was so successful that Das set up a trust fund to help fund slum children in sport and to look after Budhia’s family financially.
This trust fund is now meant to be worth tens of thousands of pounds and it could be this money that has sparked the investigation as Das would have no legal right to it if he was imprisoned and it would fall into the hands of the child’s mother.
(The above image was taken by Shirley Buxton of www.flickr.com and is used under the GNU Free Document License.)
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