20-year-old boxer Kuldeep Singh dies of drug overdose

A five-time medal winner and junior national-level boxer has reportedly died of a drug overdose in Punjab's Talwandi on Wednesday evening. The deceased has been identified as 19-year-old Kuldeep Singh. Kuldeep was a resident of Talwandi's Sabo area. Kuldeep's father has registered a case against some village youths. He alleged that they had forcibly taken Kuldeep on Wednesday afternoon.

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Local people found the boxer unconscious on Rama road in the town. They took him to the hospital and there he was pronounced dead. Pritam Singh told the police, "My son Kuldeep Singh had gone to his college from where Khushdeep Singh took him away on a motorcycle. Later, Khushdeep returned to the college alone and parked his motorcycle there. When my son did not return, we started searching for him. We asked Khushdeep, but he had no clear reply. We continued our search and found his body in a field near a tributary."

Only at the age of 8, Kuldeep had started boxing at the Baba Ajit Singh Boxing Welfare Club, Talwandi Sabo under the coach Hardeep Singh. The young boxer was a 2018 Junior Nationals silver medallist and 2018 Khelo India Youth Games bronze medalist.  He would be selected to train at the Punjab Institute of Sports (PIS) Mohali post his feat. The youngster had been training at Mohali before shifting his base back to Talwandi Sabo three months ago.

"Kuldeep had started the sport after he saw a local youngster boxing and would come with his father to train. He would never miss any training session and was very happy when he won the silver in junior nationals and with his selection in PIS," coach Hardeep Singh said in a statement.