A well-known Bangladesh cricket team fan, who dresses as a tiger, had to be hospitalised during Day 1 of the second Test match between India and Bangladesh in Kanpur on Friday. Robi, who is often seen on camera waving a Bangladeshi flag with tiger make-up on his face, was in stand C of the Green Park Stadium and he was carried out of the venue in an incident that he first claimed to be a case of physical assault. However, in a statement issued from his hospital bed later, he said he merely felt unwell and was given the necessary assistance by the local police.

The Uttar Pradesh Police said in their official statement that Robi fell ill during the match.

According to a report by RevSportz, the Bangladesh fan has a history of making wild allegations and he also takes pleasure in ‘talking ill about India’. A BCCI source even called him a sensationalist.

During the first Test in Chennai, he made allegations about the local fans ‘abusing him’ but admitted that he did not understand a single word of Tamil. He was also accused of allegedly doing a Facebook live from the stands at the M Chidambaram Stadium – something that is not allowed by the authorities.

The report also said that a lot of Bangladeshi reporters took his allegations with a pinch of salt and a journalist from the Bangladeshi news portal Prothom Alo even said – “He is an attention-seeker”.

Abhishek Pandey, ACP (Kalyanpur), said Robi received immediate medical care and insisted that he had not been assaulted as alleged in early reports.

“During the Test match between India and Bangladesh, one of the spectators whose name is Tiger, suddenly fell ill,” the officer stated.

“As soon as he fell ill, he was picked up by the police and was sent to the medical team for treatment. He is fine now and a liaison officer as been attached to him so that he can get help if needed.

“There were some reports of assault but these are baseless, no such incident happened with him. He might have taken a fall, this is what we have been able to gather,” he added.

(With PTI inputs)