Singh continues to head the federation and no report has been released in the months since. He also said a committee would be set up to investigate the allegations and a report will be released in four weeks. India’s Supreme Court has also acknowledged that the case involves “serious allegations of sexual harassment,” but it has been met with silence from the ruling party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.Īfter their initial protest in January, Indian Sports Minister Anurag Singh Thakur asked the president of the federation to step aside and help in carrying out the probe. Indian police are investigating the allegations of sexual harassment against Singh, and he has been questioned in the case. Vinesh Phogat, who has won wrestling medals at the world championships, Commonwealth Games and Asian Games, claimed in January that several coaches have exploited female wrestlers at the behest of the WFI president. Singh has denied the accusations and called the protests “politically motivated” by the opposition Congress party. They accused Singh, a 66-year-old powerful lawmaker representing the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, of sexually harassing seven young female wrestlers. Most of the Indian wrestlers come from the northern agricultural states of Haryana and Punjab. The protests have grown with many members of opposition parties and farmer unions taking up the wrestlers’ cause. Two Olympics medalists, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik, are part of the protests and have threatened to hand back their medals if no action is taken against Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. The protesters have been staging a protest in the center of New Delhi for nearly a month, amid a brutal heat wave, while foregoing their training schedules. A strong presence of police accompanied them on the marching route. NEW DELHI: India’s top female wrestlers led a candlelight march of nearly 1,000 protesters in the capital on Tuesday demanding the resignation and arrest of the president of the wrestling federation for allegedly sexually harassing young athletes, one of whom was a minor.Ĭarrying India’s national flag, they marched to India Gate, a monument close to the country’s parliament building.
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