Cuttack, Oct. 7: Police today detained a coach at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in the city on charges of assaulting a minor girl athlete.

In a police complaint, the 17-year-old athlete alleged that the coach, Sushanta Roy, 54, had passed vulgar remarks about her and assaulted her after a practice session outside the SAI centre at the Barabati Stadium complex this morning.

The alleged incident took place around 8.20am.

Stung by the misdemeanour of her coach, the athlete first went to Cantonment police station to lodge a complaint around 2pm. But considering the nature of her allegation, the cops took her to Mahila police station.

"He (the coach) assaulted me and slapped me - which was as good as outraging my modesty. In fact, he has the creepy habit of slapping me on the pretext of trifle issues such as fetching water for him. Such act borders on sexual harassment," she told mediapersons.

However, sources in the centre said Roy had chided her after receiving complaints from other athletes that she was using filthy languages. "Sir scolded her and slapped her for bad behaviour. Hasn't a teacher got the right to do so to chastise a student?" said Priyanka Topo, one of the athletes.

Roy, too, told The Telegraph over phone: "I slapped the girl in a bid to reprimand her for bad behaviour during the practice session. But, all other allegations are false and unfounded."

The victim is one of the eight girls from among the 52 boarders at the SAI centre.

Centre-in-charge Manoj Kumar Bhadra said: "Though I received a phone call from her around 8.40am and she alleged that the coach had beaten her, I did not find her when I reached the centre around 10am. I am yet to get a written complaint from her."

"The coach is being interrogated," assistant police commissioner Sitaram Satpathy told The Telegraph.

Prima facie, a case has been registered against the coach under sections 294 (using obscene language), 506 (criminal intimidation), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 354 A (sexual harassment) of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence Act, 2012, at Mahila police station.

The girl's 45-year-old father, who stays at Khurda, said: "I don't know what exactly has happened. We rushed here after getting a telephone call from our daughter around 9.20am. On the phone, we heard her saying, 'Save me! He is beating me up'."