india

Updated: Mar 28, 2019 13:49 IST

The arrest of Amitesh Chaubey — a young pro boxer from Lucknow — in an alleged case of abduction in Gurugram on Wednesday has not come as a surprise to his coach.

An aggressive fighter for UP Terminators — owned by Bollywood singer Kanika Kapoor — at the Super Boxing League in 2017 season, Chaubey was arrested from his Jankipuram house early on Wednesday and taken to Gurugram.

Lucknow and Jankipuram police are also probing his background. Jankipuram police station in-charge, Mohd Arshad, said, “Gurugram police arrested Amitesh on Wednesday morning in connection with an abduction case. We are also looking into his criminal record, if any.”

Douglas Shepherd, the coach who trained Chaubey at the KD Singh ‘Babu’ Stadium and 11 Gorkha Regiment Centre, said he was an aggressive boxer and hard working. “He couldn’t do well in amateur boxing. Despite his repeated participation in state championships, he didn’t do well so he shifted his focus to professional boxing,” Shepherd said.

Hailing from Gopalpur-Sangra village on the Mau-Ballia highway, Chaubey used to punch sand bags as he trained at his Jankipuram home. He couldn’t make it to the UP junior boxing team after suffering an injury in a training camp here. “I used to train him at the 11 Gorkha Regiment Centre too as I was allowed to train some civilians there. Later, civilians were denied entry due to security reasons,” the coach said.

Shepherd said Chaubey was aggressive and showed erratic behaviour. “He never spoke about criminal activities but I did feel ‘if this boy is not nurtured properly, he would take a wrong route’,” he said, adding, “I didn’t like the company he used to keep.”

A fellow boxer, who did not wish to be named, said: “He was street smart. If he has done something wrong for money, he must be having some big problem. I never found him criminal-minded.”

Another boxer, Kaushik, who was once knocked out by Chaubey in training, added: “He was always aggressive, but friendly and I never found anything wrong with him.”

In 2017, Chaubey had told HT he was in bad company during college days and life could have taken a wrong turn had he not taken up sports, especially boxing, as he liked it the most.

“I never hide anything, especially when I hit somebody. That is why I once confessed before a judge that I broke the jaw of a person who had duped me. Even during my school days, I have punched many adversaries,” he had said.