Narender Singh (judoka)

Narender Singh Kodan (28 May 1969 – 5 February 2016) was an Indian judoka.

Singh, who was born in Delhi, won his first national championship in 1985. He represented his country for the first time at the 1989 South Asian Games and won a gold medal. In the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland he was the joint bronze medallist in the Extra Lightweight division. He is the first judoka to have represented India twice at the Summer Olympic Games. At his first appearance in Barcelona in 1992 he was eliminated in the first round of competition, by Egypt's Ahmed El Sayed. 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.

In 1999 he was the only Indian judoka to feature in the Arjuna Awards.

A member of the Punjab Police, Singh was suspended from his duties in 2013 on suspicion of attempted murder. The incident occurred when Singh got into an altercation with a youth over parking and discharged his firearm.

He committed suicide at his residence on 5 February 2016. His wife, former Indian Olympian Sunith Thakur, found him hanging by a wire from his ceiling fan. Since being suspended by the Punjab Police he had been reportedly suffering from depression. 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. Despite being on suspension for over two years, no senior officer considered his plea for reinstatement. When Narinder failed in his attempts, he opted to end his life. It is shameful".