Mystery Indian gatecrasher revealed

Wednesday, 1 August 2012 01:14 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

It was the mystery that dominated the fallout of the London Olympic opening ceremony, and the answer has finally been revealed.

The mysterious woman in red that gatecrashed India’s march at the Olympic Stadium has been identified as Madhura Nagendra.

She had been a dancer in the opening ceremony before making her stealth entrance as part of India’s contingent.

While officials in London were baffled by the woman’s identity, friends and family back home in India recognised her almost immediately.

“We knew she had been selected for the cultural programme after an audition. But we did not expect to see her with the contingent!” said a former colleague of Nagrenda’s/

“She was a fun-loving person and was very excited about having been selected to perform in the Olympics. Madhura had also shared her happiness on Facebook, where she said she felt it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

London’s Olympic head Sebastian Coe refused to call the incident a security risk, and described Nagrenda as “over-excited”.

“She was a cast member. Clearly she got slightly over-excited. We had in fairness suspected that she was probably and possibly a member of the cast,” said Coe.

“She shouldn’t have entered, she shouldn’t have been there but she clearly started in that vein and yes, I will be speaking to the Indian delegation about it.”

India’s acting chef de mission Muralidharan Raja slammed the intrusion, but stopped short of calling it a security breach even though the woman was not wearing the customary identification badge.

“She had no business being there. It was a clear case of intrusion,” Raja was quoted as saying by the Times of India.

“I can’t say that (if it was a security breach) as she was in a sanitised zone, but this was bizarre. We will ask for an apology,” he added.

“She embarrassed us in front of the world. The Indian contingent was shown (on television) for just 10 seconds, and to think this lady hogged all the limelight.”

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