Kalmadi joins ’boot camp’

On Tuesday the suspended Congress leader became part of an elite group of individuals who have had footwear thrown at them

Kalmadi joins 'boot camp'

On Tuesday the suspended Congress leader became part of an elite group of individuals who have had footwear thrown at them

No one paid attention when he waved a piece of paper in front of over 50 cameras lined up at the Patiala House Court Complex. A few minutes later the entire congregation was trying to get a glimpse of him.

Former CWG Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi being
escorted by CBI officials to Patiala House Court on Tuesday.
Pic/Imtiyaz Khan

40-year-old Manoj Sharma did what Jarnail Singh did to Home Minister P Chidambaram, Abdul Ahad Jan to J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and Muntadar al-Zaidi to former US President George W Bush. Sharma tried to throw his slipper at the former CWG Organising Committee chief Suresh Kalmadi.

While lensmen had placed their cameras behind a barricade which had been put in place by Delhi Police, Sharma - wearing brown trousers and white shirt -walked past all the cameras at about 1.30 pm, brandishing a document. At about 1.45 pm, Suresh Kalmadi reached the court complex, to be produced before the magistrate. While he was being escorted inside, surrounded by Delhi Police men, Sharma who was following Kalmadi took out a slipper and tried to throw it towards him.

However, the station house officer of Tilak Marg police station, Mukesh Walia, who was guarding Kalmadi from the left side saw him in time and blocked his hand and pushed him back. Within a fraction of a second, a constable who was behind the SHO, grabbed Sharma by the scruff of his neck and dragged him outside the court. He was then taken to Tilak Marg police station for interrogation.u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0

Meanwhile, the special court in Delhi on Tuesday sent Suresh Kalmadi to eight days' custody with the Central Bureau of Investigation.

Others in the club
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had a grey sneaker thrown at him as he gave a speech at Cambridge University in February 2009, while a Sikh journalist hurled a shoe toward Home Minister P Chidambaram during a news conference as the minister replied to a question about the 1984 riots in which hundreds of Sikhs were killed.
LK Advani of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah also have been footwear targets. So has Congress leader Naveen Jindal, who was hit by a shoe during an election rally. Most famously, former US President George W. Bush was on the receiving end of a shoe hurl carried out by an Iraqi journalist during a press conference in Baghdad in 2008.