A group of Arjuna Award-winning boxers have resolved to pool funds to help Olympian Lakha Singh, who is driving a taxi to earn his living and is facing financial difficulties.
The boxers, including V. Devarajan, Rajendra Prasad, Jitender Kumar, Dingko Singh and Suranjoy Singh, met here on the sidelines of the National Boxing Championship and decided to extend a helping hand to Lakha, who represented the country in the 91kg category in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.
“We got to know that Lakha is driving taxis in Ludhiana. He is not doing well financially and we feel it is our duty to help a fellow boxer,” World Cup bronze medallist V. Devarajan told The Hindu . He also appealed to the Sports Ministry to help Lakha.
Lakha, in his fifties, has expressed his gratitude.
An Army jawan, Lakha won a bronze medal in the 1994 Hiroshima Asian Games. In 1998, Lakha was to take part in the World Military Boxing Championship, but he slipped out of the Texas Airport in the U.S., following which he was declared an absconder by the Army. “I managed to return with the help of the Indian embassy eight or nine years ago. I lost my job, lost everything. I have been driving a taxi since then,” Lakha said.
