new delhi even as the indian hockey team is getting ready for the battle in rio back home a 93yearold threetime hockey gold medallist is fighting his own battle to regain his lifetime medals which have gone missing due to official apathybalbir singh senior will be making yet another visit to delhi from chandigarh after the rio games for meeting the authorities running sports in the country with the hope of getting at least some answer to a query he has been asking for four yearsbalbirs grandson kabeer told toi on saturday that the hockey legend had donated his lifetime medals rare photographs and melbourne games jacket to the sports authority of india sai way back in 1985 for a museum the museum was never set up and years later theres no trace the items donated by balbirbarring the olympic medals he gave it away all totalling 36 to sai at the nehru stadium for a museum he had given it in the hope that the museum would help the people to know about the rich heritage of sports in the country and inspire youngsters kabeer saidbalbir forgot about it once he donated the items for the proposed museum but he was in for a rude shock when his family approach sai to borrow the melbourne olympic jacket for display by the international olympic committee ioc during the london 2012 games the other olympic jackets were donated to other charities so we approached sai in 2012 for the melbourne jacket they said they will search for it but soon it was forgotten we again contacted sai in 2014 when the international hockey federation fih wanted the jacket for permanent display in its museum in london but they again said they are searching for itkabeer said that through rti queries sai finally admitted later that they had received the items from balbir and had handed over to national institute of sports nsnis patiala probably they were trying to pass the buck said the legends grandson kabeer said if balbirs proposed meeting with sports minister vijay goel fails to yield any result they might move court over the matter the items are not something we want to keep with our family they are for the people of india they are for the future generation of hockey my grandfather played with pride for the country it was his team which helped a newly independent india unfurl the tricolour in all its glory in london in 1948 beating england in the final these items are of sentimental value you cant lose them just like that