The Deepak Sharma case looks to have churned out an ugly subplot as Valanka Alemao, the chairperson of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) Women’s Committee, accused the Goa Football Association of a ‘criminal conspiracy to defame the AIFF’.
Last month, Sharma, who is the general secretary of the Himachal Pradesh Football Association and also an AIFF executive committee member, had allegedly assaulted two footballers of Indian Women’s League side Khad FC in an inebriated state.
The accused, though arrested on March 30 after the victims filed an FIR at the Mapusa Police Station, was released on bail the very next day.
In a letter to the AIFF’s disciplinary committee, which Sportstar has seen, Alemao has alleged that GFA’s top brass, its president, Caitano Fernandes, and vice president, Jonathan D’Souza, had misled the narrative that she had pressurised the players to withdraw the complaint against Sharma.
“I assure you that I have never done any such thing as alleged by Shri Caitano Fernandes, President of GFA and on the contrary wanted to help them file a complaint if they chose to do,” Alemao wrote to the Disciplinary Committee.
She said that the duo had committed an offence of ‘Forgery and Falsification’, according to Clause 62 of the AIFF Disciplinary Code (June 2023 edition), and has requested a hefty fine (not more than six crore rupees) from them and a ban from all football-related activities for two years (under Clause 18).
Alemao was accused of threatening the victims to withdraw a complaint according to a clip aired on a National TV channel on March 30.
“I gathered proof that the doctored video clip was sent to the Media by Mr Caitano Fernandes, President of GFA. I also have a photograph of Mr Caetano Fernandes forwarding the recordings to an unknown person,” Alemao added in the letter.
“By doing so, Mr Caitanno has done grievous harm and brought into national and international disrepute, the game of football, and the AIFF as well thereby breaching AIFF’s Disciplinary code (2023).”
The AIFF Executive Committee, earlier this month, had dissolved the ad-hoc committee formed to investigate the incident and referred it to the Federation’s Disciplinary Committee.
Read | AIFF taking all possible steps to ensure justice: Women’s Committee chairperson Valanka Alemao
Sharma, meanwhile, was suspended from all football-related activities until further notice.
Fernandes denied the allegations entirely when Sportstar reached out to him for a comment.
“The GFA did everything in its capacity to ensure the safety of the girls, from filing a complaint with the AIFF to the FIR at the police station. It’s a shame that Valanka sent her lawyer to bail him,” he said.
“The AIFF should answer, if it was not her voice, then who was it? Moreover, it was one of the girls who recorded the audio. Where is GFA in this?”
Fernandes had trounced Savio Alemao, Valanka’s brother and son of Goan Football stalwart Churchill Alemao in the GFA elections in 2022 and has been in power since.
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