[2] He represented his country for the first time at the 1989 South Asian Games and won a gold medal.

[5] In 1996 he was one of four men who had to play a qualifying match in order to reduce the field to the required 32 judoka, which he won over Ireland's Sean Sullivan.

He then lost in the round of 32, held at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, to Natik Bagirov from Belarus.

His wife, former Indian Olympian Sunith Thakur, found him hanging by a wire from a ceiling fan.

[8] His friend, Punjab MLA Pargat Singh, was quoted as saying "It is the failure of the department that cost the life of an acclaimed sportsperson.