Really it's shocking to hear that the five times national champion and a Bronze medalist in the 1994 Asian Boxing Championship, Lakha Singh is currently driving a taxi in order to make ends meet. It's appalling to see a man of his caliber, who should have been training the future generation of boxers, driving a taxi for survival. While he allegedly blames the country for abandoning him, the govt. labeled him as a deserter.
Previously he carried India's hopes in boxing in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as well, but he couldn't repeat the success he had at national and the Asian level. Two years after the 96 Olympics, his life took a turn for the worse. Meanwhile Singh was scheduled to take part in the World Military Boxing Championship in 1998, however, he slipped out of the Texas airport and just vanished.
Moreover on the other hand, Singh says that he was kidnapped, and held captive for a month in the US. 'With no longer valid visa and money in his pocket, he had worked at gas stations, restaurants, construction sites etc. and it took him eight years to save the money required to buy a ticket back to India. Moreover he was happy to return, but was shocked to learn that he had been declared a deserter by the Army'.
