New Delhi: The Sports Authority of India (SAI) has reportedly given a clean chit to its officials in connection with the death of a female athlete and suicide bids by three others at its centre in Kerala’s Alappuzha district recently.

Media reports on Wednesday claimed that the SAI Director-General Injeti Srinivas has given a clean chit to the hostelites as well as warden Sreekala S and ruled out ragging and torture by its senior officials in its report submitted to the Sports Ministry.

The SAI DG submitted its report to the Sports Minisry barely a week after the shocking incident.

The prima facie inquiry has failed to establish any “foul play” in the suicide attempt by four teenagers who were undergoing training at SAI’s Water Sports Centre in Alappuzha.

The incident resulted in the death of champion rower Aparna Ramabhadran (15) and the hospitalisation of three other female athletes.

“The inquiry has ruled out the ragging and torture angle by senior girls,” a senior ministry official told DNA on Tuesday, adding, “SAI DG spoke to several senior hostelites and he could not establish the harassment angle as has been alleged by Aparna’s parents and the relatives of the other athletes. The investigation into the conduct of the warden has also not revealed anything substantial.”

In fact, the report has discussed the circumstances under which the four young girls took such an extreme step. “All four girls allegedly consumed alcohol (beer) at a wedding function four or five days prior to entering the suicide pact. Some of their seniors came to know about it and they advised them not to consume alcohol in future. The seniors were not exactly found to be harassing them. Later, when the warden came to know about it, she scolded the four girls and threatened to inform their parents. She was actually acting like a ‘mother’ to them, discouraging them from taking the wrong path and instead reminding them to achieve success in sports,” the report added.

However the police report on the incident is still awaited.

The SAI DG has refrained from drawing any conclusion as the matter is still under investigation.

The report has also suggested the need to constitute an advisory board headed by eminent sportspersons and coaches to help athletes overcome trauma, besides appointing psychologists and counsellors at its 75 training centres and Special Area Games (SAG) units.

In the meantime, Government termed as incident "shocking and tragic" and asserted that urgent action would be taken to prevent such happenings in the future. The incident shows the urgent need to strengthen SAI's training system and government was looking into the recommendations made by SAI Director General who enquired the matter, Minister of State for Sports Sarbananda Sonowal told the Lok Sabha in a statement.

"The shocking and tragic incident that occurred at SAG Water Sports Centre, Alappuzha does point out an urgent need to strengthen the SAI training system," the statement, read out by his ministerial colleague Rajiv Pratap Rudy, said.

(With Agency inputs)