Jagdish Bhola is a former

sportsperson An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance. Athletes may be professional sports, professionals or amateur sports, amateurs. Most professional a ...

and allegedly a

drug smuggler The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through ...

. He was well known as "king kong" of Indian wrestling and had earned Arjuna Award during his wrestling career.

Early life

Jagdish Bhola was born in Chauke (dist. Bathinda). Bhola spent most of his childhood with his maternal family. At an early age he was encouraged by his maternal uncle to take up wrestling as a career and was trained by him as well in village Chauke itself, where many national and international players have been produced. Later on Bhola shifted to

Ludhiana Ludhiana ( ) is the most populous and the largest city in the Indian state of Punjab. The city has an estimated population of 1,618,879 2011 census and distributed over , making Ludhiana the most densely populated urban centre in the state. I ...

and joined a renowned ''

akhara Akhara or Akhada ( Sanskrit and Hindi: अखाड़ा, shortened to ''khara'' Hindi: खाड़ा) is an Indian word for a place of practice with facilities for boarding, lodging and training, both in the context of Indian martial artist ...

'' to master his skills in wrestling.

Career

As a wrestler he reached fame after earning a silver medal in the

1991 Asian Wrestling Championships The following is the final results of the 1991 Asian Wrestling Championships. Medal table Team ranking Medal summary Men's freestyle Men's Greco-Roman References External links UWW Database
{{Asian Wrestling Championships 1991 i ...

, Delhi, he also competed throughout the world. For his wrestling career, Government awarded him with the Arjuna Award. Bhola also appeared in a Punjabi language movie, ''

Rustam-e-Hind Ghulam Mohammad Baksh Butt (22 May 1878 – 23 May 1960), commonly known as ''Rustam-e-Hind'' (Hindi-Urdu for ''Rostam of Hindostan'') and by the ring name The Great Gama, was a pehlwani wrestler and strongman in British India. In the earl ...

'' which released in 2008. For a brief time Bhola served in the Punjab police as

DSP DSP may refer to: Computing * Digital signal processing, the mathematical manipulation of an information signal * Digital signal processor, a microprocessor designed for digital signal processing * Yamaha DSP-1, a proprietary digital signal ...

before being suspended by the Punjab Police.

Decline in career

Bhola was subject to controversy when in 2008 he was caught by Mumbai Police for drug peddling. Soon after the government took away his Arjuna award, followed by Punjab police suspending Bhola from his DSP post in 2008. Bhola restarted his drug trafficking business earning much wealth and possessing two posh bungalows, costly cars and having a sugar mill fitted with high resolution CCTV cameras around its perimeter. He was arrested again in 2015 by Punjab Police along with Ram Singh, a boxer, for alleged participation in synthetic drug cartel of 700 crore. According to sources, Bhola was also convicted for running illegal drug manufacturing business from his home. According to Punjab Police he is the head of the Punjab-based drug racket. The drugs where trafficked from Pakistani border areas and is supplied to

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

and parts of

Himachal Pradesh Himachal Pradesh (; ; "Snow-laden Mountain Province") is a state in the northern part of India. Situated in the Western Himalayas, it is one of the thirteen mountain states and is characterized by an extreme landscape featuring several peaks ...

References

Indian wrestlers Indian male martial artists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Recipients of the Arjuna Award {{India-martialart-bio-stub