WFI Wrestlers Allege Police Brutality Amidst Sexual Harassment Claims

The athletes who’re protesting have demanded the quick arrest of Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, and have requested that the Supreme Courtroom intervene within the matter. The Supreme Courtroom has directed the police to register a case in opposition to the accused 66-year-old Singh.

Athletes allege assault

For the previous ten days, Indian wrestling leaders have taken to the streets of New Delhi to protest in opposition to the inaction taken in opposition to the top of the nation’s wrestling federation, Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, who’s accused of sexual harassment by most of the nation’s high wrestlers. Singh, a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Occasion and a parliamentarian, has denied all of the allegations of misconduct in opposition to him.

On Wednesday evening, the athletes who have been tenting at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar protest web site, which is situated close to Parliament, alleged that they have been assaulted by the police. 

Wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who was in tears, acknowledged that they have been bringing folding cots since there was no place to sleep as a result of space being full of water from the rain. She claimed {that a} male police officer manhandled and abused them through the course of. She additionally acknowledged that the best way they’ve been handled is unacceptable and he or she wouldn’t need any athlete to win a medal for the nation underneath such circumstances.

The New Delhi police have refuted allegations that their officers assaulted the protesting athletes.

Oversight Committee Inaction

Led by Olympic bronze medalists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, wrestlers took to the streets of New Delhi on January 18th to protest in opposition to the alleged sexual harassment of feminine athletes by Brijbhushan Sharan Singh and a number of other coaches related to the game’s governing physique. Vinesh Phogat, who received gold on the Commonwealth Video games, claimed that a number of ladies have been sexually harassed by coaches and the president of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI). She acknowledged that she personally is aware of at the least 10 to twenty ladies who’ve shared their tales along with her from the nationwide camp.

The wrestlers initially known as off their protests on January twentieth after the federal government assured them that an oversight committee would examine the allegations, and the Ministry of Sports activities stripped the highest brass of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) of all administrative powers.

 Nonetheless, India’s first feminine wrestler to win an Olympic medal, Sakshi Malik, believes that withdrawing the protest was a mistake for the reason that report by the oversight committee was not made public, and the accused people could have acquired a clear chit. 

The demonstrations resumed final month following what the protesters understand as authorities inaction. In a letter to the Indian Olympic Affiliation (IOA) chief, the wrestlers claimed that Vinesh Phogat was mentally harassed and tortured by Singh after she missed out on an Olympic medal in Tokyo in 2021, which just about led to her considering suicide. The letter additionally accused the WFI, led by Singh, of economic misappropriation.

WFI President refutes allegations

Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, a six-time member of parliament from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP), has been heading the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) since 2011. In January, he dismissed the sexual harassment allegations made in opposition to him by feminine wrestlers as a political tactic aimed toward ousting him from his place. Singh acknowledged that he was keen to be hanged if any feminine wrestler proved the fees in opposition to him. 

He has accused the wrestlers of being pawns within the arms of the opposition. Singh additionally cancelled a press convention meant to reveal a “conspiracy” in opposition to him and as a substitute despatched out his son to deal with the reporters.

The federal government had pledged to finish the investigation into the sexual harassment allegations in opposition to Singh inside 4 weeks. Though the report was concluded in April, the findings weren’t made out there to the general public.

The protests resumed not too long ago because the police had not taken any formal motion in opposition to Singh or initiated an inquiry into his conduct.

The Supreme Courtroom intervened, questioning the police about their failure to file a case in opposition to Singh and describing the accusations as “severe.”

This week, the New Delhi Police knowledgeable the Supreme Courtroom that they’d register a case in opposition to Singh.