Jarara Premier League has been shut down.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
A local cricket tournament in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, turned out to be disastrous as a 15-year-old girl was killed following a dispute in a match.
Jarara Premier League (JPL), on the lines of a T20 tournament, began on May 14. Everything went fine until a match between Jarara and Bariki on May 28.
A local man named Raj Kumar, who was acting as the umpire, called a ‘no ball’ at a crucial stage in the game. Dissatisfied with the decision, Sandeep Pal, one of the players approached Kumar and asked him to revise the decision which he refused to do.
Sandeep Pal then threatened Kumar of dire consequences. Pal said that Kumar would lose one of his family members. Everybody thought that the dispute would end at the cricket ground.
The next day, Pal approached Kumar’s younger sister Pooja who was accompanied by three of her friends. Pal offered them all a poison-laced cool drink. She didn’t suspect him as she had known him for years.
Pooja collapsed soon after sipping the drink and was rushed to the hospital by her friends. She was taken to a specialty hospital later on but died at the hospital. Her three friends have been shifted to another hospital in Aligarh.
Jarara has witnessed several criminal activities in recent years. But the organizers were optimistic that the players would not take matters into their own hands. But everything turned down after the match on May 28.
The local authorities were against the formation of JPL. The organizers had also warned the players against taking matters into their own hands if any dispute arises.
“I always knew it was a bad idea to hold such a cricket tournament here. My fears have come true,” Rattan Pal Rawal, the pradhan of Jarara told Times of India.
The police have registered a case of murder and an investigation has been initiated.
“Four girls were given poison as they set out for their fields,” Khair police station officer Sukhdev Yadav told The Times. “While one of them has died, the three others have been referred from the local hospital to a bigger one in Aligarh. From the site of the incident, we found another bottle that had a potent insecticide in it. We will get to the bottom of this in a few days,” he added.