Indian athlete returns BMW after foreseeing maintenance snag

MUMBAI: Indian gymnast who missed out on a medal in 2016 Rio Olympics is in a fix over a BMW luxury vehicle rewarded over her performance in the games.

According to an Indian news agency, BMW vehicles were rewarded to gymnast Dipa Karmakar, badminton player PV Sindhu, wrestler Sakshi Malik along with Sindhu’s coach Pullela Gopichand over their performance in the 2016 Rio games.

Karmakar stated that she wished to return the BMW due to maintenance issue which she foresaw in her north-eastern state of Tripura.

She said, “There is no showroom or service centre of BMW car in Tripura. If the car developed any technical snag during driving, how would I repair this? There are also not sufficient suitable roads in Agartala and other places of the mountainous state to ply the luxury car.”

The gymnast stated that she raised the issue with her coach Bisheshwar Nandi, who discussed this matter with the association’s president V. Chamundeshwarnath. She added that the association’s president has agreed to deposit the cash equal to the vehicle.