Senior India hockey player Birendra Lakra, who was part of the squad that won the bronze medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, has been accused of being involved in the murder of his flatmate and childhood friend Anand Toppo. The accusation is being made by the father of the deceased.

Toppo’s body was found inside his flat in Bhubaneswar earlier this year. The father of the deceased, Bandhan, has accused the state police of shielding the 32-year-old hockey player since he served as a DSP at one time. He claims that he has been struggling to file an FIR. 

“We and Birendra were next door neighbours, so naturally Anand was his childhood friend. On February 28, we got a call from Birendra that Anand is unconscious and he is taking him to the hospital. Later he informed us that Anand is no more,” Bandhan Toppo told PTI.

“We asked him what had happened but he just told us to come to Bhubaneswar. We reached there next day and we were taken to the local police station where the officer told us Anand had committed suicide. But there was no suicide note. We were shown Anand body’s after much insistence and on the first look I saw hand marks on his neck. But the post mortem report said it was a suicide,” said Bandhan.

Who is Birender Lakra?

Born on February 3, 1990, in Odisha, Birender Lakra started playing at the SAIL Hockey Academy in Rourkela. After being included in the junior team for the singapore tour in 2007 and being a part of the team that won the FIH Junior World Cup two years later, Lakra made his debut for India in the series against South Africa in 2012. He has since appeared in 156 games. 

The 32-year-old was part of India’s bronze medal winning team at the Tokyo Games. Besides the Olympic bronze, Lakra is a two-time Asian Games medallist (gold in 2014 Incheon, bronze in 2018 Jakarta). He was also a part of the silver-medal winning Indian team at the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games.