The Syed Modi International Badminton Championships, held annually in India in memory of Commonwealth Games medalist Syed Modi, assembles the best shuttlers from around the country and the globe as they fight for top honours in the BWF Grand Prix Gold tournament. Since its inception in 1991, the event has been held at the Babu Banarasi Das Indoor Stadium, Lucknow, although it was shifted to Hyderabad for a year in 2010.

It got BWF recognition in 2004. From 2009, it got Grand Prix status and has been witnessing participation from eminent players from China, Japan, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Denmark among others. However, do we know who Syed Modi was and why we have a BWF tournament named after him? Probably the only person who has a BWF tournament named after him until 2017 when the Indian Open got renamed to Dr Akhilesh Das Gupta Indian Open.

Syed Modi was at the peak of his career in the 1980s, when he won gold in the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Australia

There was simply no denying Modi’s badminton pedigree. “He was a classy, instinctive, naturally talented player, who showed a high degree of intelligence when playing tough matches, particularly within the country, where he simply refused to get beaten during the course of the 1980s,” says Vimal, who lost by the narrowest of narrow margins (17-18 in the third game, after leading 16-13) to Modi in the finals of the Jamshedpur Nationals in 1987.

“I noticed a particular habit of his when he was in a tight situation, and badly needed a few points. He would run his palm across the hair at the back of his head, against the direction of the hair – which would make it stand up, and give him a sort of spiky tuft. The moment that happened, I knew I was doomed, and that I would be unable to extract a further point from him,” says a rueful Vimal. “I don’t know why, but it became a sort of hoodoo for me; and I lost to him many, many times after I saw him stroke his back hair upwards during a match!”

Syed Modi was one of the most promising players of India hailing from Uttar Pradesh. Few of his biggest laurels include Gold at CWG in 1982 at Australia and Bronze at Asiad in 1982 held at Delhi at the mere age of 20. He has won several European circuit championship as well. An Arjuna Awardee, Syed Modi was 8 times national champion consecutively from 1980 to 1987.

Once touted as the next Prakash Padukone of Indian badminton, Syed Modi is now honoured with an annual tournament.

On the evening of July 28, 1988, when Syed Modi came out of the KD Babu Stadium after finishing his routine badminton practice and was about to start his scooter, five bullets were fired at him from a .38 bore revolver by two assailants. Two other men were waiting close by in a Maruti van. All four fled the spot. A brilliant career was cut short as Syed Modi, hailed as the next Prakash Padukone of India, died an unfortunate and untimely death. 

Soon after the murder, UP police arrested 7 persons including Modi’s wife Ameeta Singh, Congress leader Sanjay Singh who was a close friend and classmate of Rajiv Gandhi and another Congress leader outlaw-turned-politician, former MLA from Rae Bareli Akhilesh Singh for criminal conspiracy and murder. As it was a high profile murder case where the accused were powerful politicians, for the fear of scuttling the investigation, the case got shifted to CBI.

In happier times: Ameeta (L) and Syed Modi (R). (Photo: India Today archives)

On the CBI’s investigation, these four reported assailants — Amar Bahadur Singh, Bhagwati Singh, Balai Singh and Jitendra Singh — were found to be working for one Akhilesh Singh. According to the CBI, these four were hired to get the hit job done. 

Akhilesh was reportedly a friend of Sanjay Sinh, and a man with many criminal cases against him. The CBI arrested all four assailants, their handler Akhilesh, and the couple Sanjay Sinh and Ameeta for murder and conspiracy.  

It was the CBI that revealed the real mastermind of the crime was apparently Sanjay Sinh — a friend of the couple and an overbearing figure in Ameeta’s life, a man she was reportedly in love with. The CBI’s charges were based on the pages of Ameeta’s diary and several love letters exchanged between Sanjay and Ameeta which reveal a tale of passion. However, they denied all such charges.

The CBI also reportedly found Garima Singh’s letter, reprimanding Sanjay for the illicit affair, and another letter from Syed to Ameeta, where he speaks of his impending end and the terrible pain of having lost the love of his wife. The CBI considered these material facts enough to cast motive to murder Syed on Sanjay and believed that Ameeta was aware of the conspiracy. 

However, none of these could be proved in Court. The letters and diaries could only prove a suspicion of motive — but were not enough to frame charges, the court held.

Charges were dropped against the three accused. In the end, there was a trial only against the four hired assailants, two of whom were mysteriously murdered when they came out on bail. Finally, after a trial that lasted decades, Bhagwati was sentenced for a life term for murdering Syed Modi. 

Later, Rajiv’s friend Sanjay Singh went on to marry Ameeta in 1990 while still being legally married to Garima Singh, a relative of VP Singh. Garima filed a case alleging polygamy to which Sanjay replied that he had sent divorce notice to Garima’s address to which Garima never replied. Hence court granted him an ex-parte divorce. The case has been dragging on to this date with Sanjay still legally married to Garima but lives with Ameeta.

Marital discord started in Modi’s life soon after the marriage. Ameeta and Syed belonged to a different religion, social strata and culture. Despite strong opposition from both families, they got married in 1984. However, differences soon started cropping up owning to professional jealousy and adulterous nature of Ameeta. While Modi went on to win several national championships, Ameeta had to take a break as she was expecting their first child in 1987. The gaps widened to a point where Syed Modi suspected that the child is not his. Marital discord affected his game as well and he lost his first ever senior nationals title in 1988. Soon they started living separately. On 28th of July 1988, Modi was shot dead in front of the stadium as he was coming out after a practice session.

So what happened to Rajiv’s friend and his new wife after being charged with heinous crimes such as criminal conspiracy and murder? Of course, Congress rewarded him with Rajya Sabha nomination in 1990 while the wife got an MLA ticket from Amethi assembly constituency. Sanjay Singh has been a Lok Sabha member in 1998 and 2009. He is incumbent RS MP from Assam. Ameeta contested UP assembly elections in 2017 from Amethi on an INC ticket against estranged wife of Sanjay, Garima Singh who was contesting as a BJP nominee. Both declared Sanjay Singh to be their husband in respective election affidavits. Garima won the elections by a margin of 5065 votes.

While Syed Modi and his family never got justice, the nation lost a bright star in the field of Badminton. The perpetrators were never brought to book because they knew all the right people. While Badminton Authority of India, in memory of the legend, started Syed Modi Championships which has now become an international BWF event, one should draw solace from the fact that Congress party has not renamed it as Rajiv Gandhi memorial Badminton tournament.

The story needs to be told today to direct light onto the real issues involved here — the politician-criminal nexus in Indian politics, and sheer opportunism, greed and pursuit of power that these leaders have. Every party has such unethical leaders with criminal backgrounds. These leaders enjoy great political clout and think themselves above the law. A clear example we can presently see is in the likes of BJP MLAs Kuldeep Sengar and Akash Vijayvargiya.

Is the Congress above this? Absolutely not.

Questions must be asked as to what a person like Sinh, with such serious accusations against him, was doing in the Congress party in the first place?

Sinh had risen to the political limelight as a Congress leader and as a friend of the Gandhi family. In 1988, just days or months before the murder, he had quit and joined VP Singh’s Janata Dal.

Incidentally, VP Singh was Sinh’s first wife Garima’s uncle.

The murder trial was severely compromised, allegedly at the behest of VP Singh, who became Prime Minister by December 1989.

Sanjay was given impressive portfolios in VP Singh’s cabinet. Yet, in a few years, he quit the Janata Dal and joined the BJP. In 2003, he again quit the BJP and came back to the Congress.

References:

dailyo.in - SANJUKTA BASU - @sanjukta
opindia.com - Sambit Nayak
firstpost.com - Shirish Nadkarni