Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a BJP MP and the head of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), has been accused of sexual harassment and intimidation by seven female wrestlers in separate police reports. It has been learned that the wrestlers have alleged numerous instances of sexual harassment in their complaints, which were submitted on Friday to the Connaught Place Police Station in New Delhi. These incidents range in time from 2012 to as recently as 2022. The complainants said that they held back because of their fear of the repercussions.
Additionally, they claimed that the harassment occurred at Brij Bhushan’s MP house on Ashoka Road in New Delhi, which also serves as the WFI headquarters, at least four times. The wrestlers claimed that there were instances of harassment both during a domestic competition and a foreign competition. Top wrestlers, including Olympic medalists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik as well as world championship medalist Vinesh Phogat, returned to Jantar Mantar on Sunday, three months after they first started a sit-in protest against Brij Bhushan in which they accused him of sexual harassment among other things. The police complaints also came at the same time.
Sakshi and Vinesh, who were seated next to one another and in tears, also urged that the government-appointed inquiry committee’s report be made public before submitting it to the ministry of sports.It’s been claimed that we haven’t provided the committee with any evidence to back up our accusations, said Vinesh. Has Brij Bhushan been questioned regarding the existence of any proof?
In a late-Sunday video message, Vinesh claimed that despite the allegations, the Delhi Police had not yet filed a FIR. Sakshi and Bajrang stood by his side. “In this fight for our sisters and daughters, we are together. We will undoubtedly get justice if we fight together, declared Bajrang, an Olympic bronze medalist from Tokyo.A representative of the ministry of sports stated the report of the oversight committee is still being looked at. The official stated: “The sports ministry attitude remains neutral until the probe is finished. The wrestlers have complained that Sports Minister Anurag Thakur has not returned their calls for an update. As a result, the Sports Minister and other ministry representatives have refrained from engaging with either party during this time.
In order to get police intervention, the wrestlers also went to the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW). Swati Maliwal, president of DCW, sought a FIR be filed against Brij Bhushan in a letter to the Deputy Commissioner of Police. In her letter, Maliwal stated that “multiple women, including a minor, have alleged that the accused has engaged in the crime of sexual harassment against them during his tenure at the helm of Wrestling Federation of India.”
Maliwal stated that a complainant had told the DCW that the sports ministry had been calling them. In addition, she wrote, “she (the complainant) has informed the Commission that instead of filing a FIR in the matter, some of the complainants and their family members have started receiving phone calls from an IPS officer posted in the Department of Sports, MYAS, enquiring about the identities of the complainants.
A senior wrestler who wished to remain unnamed commented on the police allegations against Brij Bhushan, saying, “They have taken this step as there has been no action since we registered our objection with the sports ministry. We are currently anticipating further police action. A senior police officer confirmed the accusations and stated that an investigation is being carried out before filing a FIR. The officer promised that the proper legal measures would be done. Bajrang, Vinesh, and other notable wrestlers have voiced their displeasure that the government-appointed Oversight Committee’s findings have not yet been made public.
