‘It’s their stand, what can we do?’: WFI chief on wrestlers’ call to throw medals in the Ganga

“The matter is under investigation by the Delhi Police. If there’s any truth to the charges, an arrest will be made,” said WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan | File
| Photo Credit: ANI

Embattled Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on Tuesday responded to the protesting wrestlers, who gathered at Haridwar on Tuesday and threatened to throw their medals in the Ganga as a mark of protest against him, saying that the charges against him are already being probed by the Delhi Police.

Mr. Singh, who is facing allegations of sexual harassment by female wrestlers, added that the decision by the grapplers to consign their laurels to the waters was purely a stand taken by them. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the six-time BJP MP said, “The matter is under investigation by the Delhi Police. If there’s any truth to the charges (levelled against him by the wrestlers), an arrest will be made,” the WFI chief added.

While the grapplers arrived in the holy city on Tuesday to consign their medals to the Ganga, farmer leader Naresh Tikait talked them out of it. The wrestlers later issued a five-day ultimatum to the authorities to act against the WFI chief. “Today, they went to Haridwar to immerse their medals in the Ganga. But later, they handed them to Tikait. It’s their stand, what can we do?” he added.

Olympians Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat, who have been demanding the removal and arrest of the WFI president over allegations of sexual harassment, reached Haridwar earlier on Tuesday to immerse their medals in the Ganga.

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Earlier, the wrestlers took to Twitter to share a post about the events that have unfolded in the recent past and the way authorities handled the situation.The protesting grappler said they will visit Haridwar and throw their medals in the Ganga at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. In their post, the wrestlers said, “You saw everything that happened on May 28, how police treated us and the way they arrested us. We were protesting peacefully, our place has been taken away and the next day serious cases and FIR were filed against us. Have the wrestlers committed any crime by demanding justice for the sexual harassment that happened to them? The police and the system are treating us like criminals, while the oppressor is taking jibe moving freely. He is even openly talking about changing the POSCO Act.”

“Yesterday, many of our women wrestlers were hiding in the fields. The system should arrest the oppressor but it is engaged in breaking and intimidating the victim women to end their protest,” the grapplers said. They claimed the medals that they won for the country don’t hold any meaning or significance for them anymore.

”It is not less than death for us thinking of returning medals but how can we live compromising our self-respect? We don’t need these medals anymore. If we speak against exploitation, they prepare to put us in jail,” the wrestlers said. ”We are going to shed these medals in the Ganga. Our medals which we earned after hard work are as sacred as River Ganga. These medals are sacred for the entire country and the right place to keep the sacred medal can be holy Ganga and not our unholy system which masquerades us and stands with our oppressor after taking advantage of us. The medal is our life, our soul. We will sit on hunger strike at India gate till death,” they added in their post.

On Sunday, Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia along with Vinesh Phogat and Sangeeta Phogat were detained by Delhi Police while attempting to march to the new Parliament building where they planned to stage a demonstration.An FIR was filed under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 147, 149, 186, 188, 332, 353, Section 3 of the PDPP Act, said Delhi Police.