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Cricket coach held in Uttar Pradesh for sexually assaulting minors promising selection to teams

Lucknow: Bhelupur police have arrested a cricket coach on charges of sodomy after being found accused of exploiting two boys aged 14 and 15, promising free coaching and selection in teams at different levels. The coach runs his academy on the campus of an educational institution and another at Seer Gowardhanpur. The coach was arrested after he admitted to his crime, confessing that he had sodomised a lot of boys. The incident came to light when one of his victims developed health complications after being subjected to unnatural sex by the accused. The boy took his parents into confidence and narrated the story of his exploitation to them on Thursday. Consequently, the victims parents contacted other boys under the tutelage of the accused, and when another boy made a similar complaint, they approached the Bhelupur police with a complaint against the coach on Friday. The arrested coach, identified as Murarilal alias Gautam (45), residing in a rented room in Seer Gowardhanpur under Lanka police station area, was presented before media persons on Saturday. According to ACP Gaurav Kumar, the accused was arrested within 24 hours of the FIR being lodged on the charges of sodomising two boys aged 14 and 15. During initial interrogation, he confessed that he had victimised several boys in the past and had also been put behind bars in a similar case lodged with the Lanka police in 2021. The ACP added that further investigation was in progress. During the investigation, it came to light that Murari hailed from the Miraban area under the Jansa police station. He sold his share of the parental property in 2016 after the death of his parents and started residing in Seer Gowardhanpur and opened a cricket coaching centre. Falling on his knees repeatedly in the presence of media persons, Murari kept weeping, saying that he did not want to live anymore. He used to target adolescent trainees promising free coaching and ensuring selection at different levels. However, the details of his cricketing career or how he took up the business of cricket coaching were not known.