(From top) M.S. Gill, K.P.S. Gill

New Delhi, April 28: K.P.S. Gill’s 15-year iron rule over Indian hockey ended in humiliation today when the Indian Olympic Association sacked him.

The IOA suspended the Indian Hockey Federation and decided to replace it by an ad-hoc committee, days after a news channel claimed to show federation secretary K. Jyothikumaran accepting a bribe.

IOA president Suresh Kalmadi said the decisions were taken “unanimously” by the heads of 40-odd sporting bodies.

Sources said the association, the parent body for all Olympic sports in India, was under pressure from the Centre and the International Hockey Federation (FIH) to act against K.P.S. Gill, who has thwarted many past attempts to oust him.

It apparently took a Gill to take out a Gill.

One of the first actions by new sports minister M.S. Gill after the sting controversy was to publicly advise the hockey chief to step down. K.P.S. Gill had rebuffed it, just as he had pooh-poohed calls for his head in March after the Indian team had, for the first time, failed to qualify for an Olympics.

But the IOA was somewhat indebted to the government for replacing Mani Shankar Aiyar with M.S. Gill as sports minister last month. The association had been a critic of Aiyar and his draft sports policy.

A day after his appointment, M.S. Gill made it clear he had no intention of implementing Aiyar’s draft policy.

“So when he called for K.P.S. Gill’s ouster, the IOA had no option,” an association source said.

Also, the FIH had threatened to scrap its project to promote Indian hockey and said it was seriously thinking of withdrawing the 2010 World Cup from India because of IHF corruption.

“At today’s meeting, Priya Ranjan Das Munshi (the football chief) said that but for the FIH letter, he would have supported Gill,” the source said. “But with India’s prestige at stake, he said, a new body should replace the IHF.”

K.P.S. Gill, who turned up at the meeting, dismissed an offer to step outside while the rest spoke for his ouster, opting to sit through the speeches by the likes of V.K. Malhotra (archery), Lalit Bhanot (athletics) and Das Munshi.

He walked out grim-faced after the verdict, refusing comment.

“It was a painful decision… but the issue involved corruption charges and the prestige of the nation,” Kalmadi said.

The ad-hoc committee is expected to run Indian hockey at least till the 2010 Commonwealth Games. For now, a five-member selection panel, made up of former hockey stars, has been formed.

It is headed by Aslam Sher Khan, one of K.P.S. Gill’s biggest critics, and includes Dhanraj Pillay, Ashok Kumar, Ajit Pal Singh and Zaffar Iqbal. IHF technical adviser Ric Charlesworth, an Australian legend, has been named adviser.

“It (Gill’s ouster) was long overdue,” former captain Pargat Singh said.

Octogenarian Olympian Balbir Singh Sr said: “I welcome the change.”