WFI busts age-fraud, over 500 young wrestlers disqualified from U-17 ranking meet

In a sweeping crackdown on age fraud, more than 500 wrestlers were disqualified from the U-17 National Open Ranking Tournament in Gonda after the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) introduced a stringent Aadhaar-based verification system that exposed widespread discrepancies in age and birth records.

The tournament, held from June 6 to 8 in Uttar Pradesh's Gonda district, saw around 1,200 wrestlers register across men's freestyle, Greco-Roman and women's categories.

Apart from the mandatory birth certificates used for age verification, wrestlers were asked to produce Aadhaar cards linked to their mobile numbers and provide OTP authentication through the Aadhaar app, which maintains a record of changes made to the document.

The exercise led to the disqualification of nearly 500 wrestlers -- around 300 in men's freestyle, 125 in Greco-Roman and about 50 in women's wrestling -- after discrepancies emerged between details mentioned in birth certificates and Aadhaar records.

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In several cases, the place of birth and date of birth recorded in Aadhaar did not match those mentioned in birth certificates, many of which had been issued years after the wrestler's birth.

One of the cases that raised suspicion involved a wrestler who produced a birth certificate showing his date of birth as 2007 and place of birth as Delhi's Narela area, while his Aadhaar records indicated that he was born in Haryana in 2004.

The discrepancy prompted the WFI to seek clarification from the hospital that had issued the birth certificate.

Following the verification process, only 350 wrestlers in men's freestyle, 185 women wrestlers and 160 Greco-Roman wrestlers were cleared to compete in the tournament.

WFI president Sanjay Singh said the federation was committed to ensuring a level playing field and would continue with the enhanced verification mechanism in age-group competitions.

"We are determined to eradicate age fraud from wrestling. Genuine athletes suffer when overage competitors participate in age-group events. The Aadhaar verification process has helped us identify discrepancies, and we will continue to implement it strictly in all future U-15, U-17 and U-20 competitions," Singh said.

The federation recently suspended five wrestlers after detecting fake birth certificates during scrutiny of documents, underlining its resolve to tackle manipulation of age records.

WFI officials said the same verification protocol would be enforced at upcoming age-group events, including the U-17 World Championship women's trials in Sonepat on June 14 and the men's trials in Lucknow on June 15, as the federation intensifies its crackdown on age fraud.