Dutee Chand claims her sister ‘blackmailing’ her, sister says she has ‘no problem’ with Dutee’s same-sex relationship 

Dutee Chand.

New Delhi: Two days after Indian athlete Dutee Chand acknowledged being in a same-sex relationship, she had claimed that her elder sister Saraswati was blackmailing her for money and threatened to go to town about Dutee’s love with a girl and her plans to settle down with her same-sex partner in the future.

Dutee, on Tuesday, said, “My sister has been blackmailing me for a while now. She has been trying to create problems in our family. She has been telling people that I have stopped talking to my parents and ignore them. She blackmailed me and asked for lakhs of rupees.”

Defending herself, Saraswati said she was not opposed in principle to Dutee’s same-sex relationship. However, she didn’t want her younger sister to be exploited by those allegedly trying to piggyback on her fame and success as an athlete.

Saraswati, who is also 10 years Dutee’s senior, later, on Tuesday, said, “I am not against Dutee being in a same-sex relationship. She is an adult and is free to make her own choice with regard to whom she wants to be with. Dutee is a simple girl and I don’t want her to be misled by anyone. I know her like nobody else and she has a heart of gold. But she should not lose focus because the most important thing for her right now is qualifying for the World Championships and the Olympic Games.”

Dutee Chand is the first Indian athlete to have come out of the closet about her homosexuality. While she has got widespread support for coming out openly as a gay, she had said her family has been non-supportive of her relationship status.

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