IOA's Anandeshwar Panday accused of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ during Birmingham CWG

Commonwealth Games (CWG) in Birmingham following a complaint of “inappropriate behaviour” by a female volunteer. A T2 privilege offers an accredited team official access to all competition and non-competition venues, as well as recognised city centres in the host city. In a letter dated August 5, which was made public on Thursday, Ashwin Lokare, Birmingham 2022 Head of Games Family Services, flagged the issue of Panday’s alleged misdemeanour to IOA’s acting president Anil Khanna while appreciating the efforts made by him to address the organising committee’s (OC) concerns.

“As a consequence of the inappropriate nature of Anandeshwar Panday’s behaviour, which made the volunteer driver feel uncomfortable and left her in an awkward situation, Birmingham 2022 has made the decision to revoke his T2 transport privilege for the remainder of the Games,” the communication read. “We recognise that you have spoken to Panday about his behaviour and apologised on his behalf. We also appreciate you taking the effort to address our concerns,” added the mail from Lokare, a copy of which is with TOI.

Speaking in his defence, Panday told TOI: “I strongly refute any such allegations of misbehaviour during the CWG. I would say it was more about language barrier. I was at the NEC Arena watching matches.

After coming out, I boarded the official transport (car) and requested the lady to first drop me at the athletes’ village and later at my hotel. She told me that her shift for the day was over and she couldn’t drop me at the village. I told her she should have informed me earlier, as I would have arranged for an alternate transport.

Later, she reluctantly dropped me at the village. The next day, I came to hear about this complaint. It was