Madhura was selected for a dance show, says father

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After a brief suspense, the mystery has been unravelled. The strange, smiling female who created a storm by skipping security and joining the parade of the Indian contingent for the London Olympics Opening Ceremony has been identified. She is 25-year-old Bengaluru girl Madhura Nagendra.

Working at Keane as a technical communicator, she had walked prominently with India’s flag-bearer Sushil Kumar, dressed in a red sweatshirt and turquoise blue trousers during the high-profile parade of the Opening Ceremony, watched by millions around the world, and an estimated 60,000 gathering at the Olympic stadium on Friday night.

She was a member of the cast from the extravaganza but should not have been with the athletes, London Olympics 2012 chief Sebastian Coe was quoted by the media as saying on Sunday.

Madhura’s identity was revealed on Sunday morning after a Deccan Chronicle journalist identified her through a college mate. Her name first came out as Madhura Honey, which is her name on the Facebook account.

The name was also trending in social networking sites soon after the news emerged. Madhura completed her post-graduation in Communications and Media Studies from Christ College in Bengaluru in 2009.

Even as Madhura remained unreachable, her father K.L. Nagendra sprang to her defence and claimed, “My daughter has done nothing wrong and she has not broken any rule. She was a part of the opening ceremony as a dancer. She was later asked by someone in the organising committee to be a part of the Indian march past.”

Madhura’s presence has caused a major uproar in the Indian contingent with India's acting chef-de-mission Muralidharan Raja lodging a protest with the organisers.

In a fallout of the incident, her parents have practically gone into hiding and have skipped out of their Banashankari residence and are currently living in their family home at Anekal, on the outskirts of the city to avoid the media glare.

Madhura’s friends claimed that she was very excited about the Games and said she was picked as a volunteer. In fact, the cover photograph on her Facebook profile, which she deactivated quickly after the uproar over her identity, pictured her in front of the Olympics stadium.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, one of her friends said, “She was obviously very excited to be a part of the Olympics and had told us she was a part of the dance troupe, but we were shocked to see her with the Indian contingent marching in the parade –and in its front, prominently. Madhura has practically gone underground after she made news.”