Delhi Police Takes Wrestler To Wrestling Body Chief's Official Residence

Stepping up its probe into sexual harassment allegations against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief, the Delhi Police on Friday took a woman wrestler to his office here to recreate the sequence of events that led to the alleged crime.

Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's official residence houses the office of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).

Sports Minister Anurag Thakur had assured the protesting wrestlers that a chargesheet would be filed in the case by June 15, after which the grapplers suspended their protest.

A Delhi Police official said the wrestler, accompanied by women police personnel, was taken to the WFI office at 1.30 pm. "They were there for half an hour. They asked her to recreate the scene and recall the places where she faced harassment," the police official said.

Hours after the police left the place, wrestler Vinesh Phogat, who was among those leading the protest, took to Twitter to express her disappointment at media reports that claimed that the wrestlers had reached the WFI office for a compromise.

"This is the power of Brij Bhushan. He is harassing women wrestlers by using his muscle power, political power and running false narratives, and his arrest is necessary. If the police arrests him instead of breaking us, there is hope for justice, otherwise not. Women wrestlers had gone to the crime scene for police investigation, but it was flashed in the media that they had gone for a compromise," she tweeted in Hindi.

बृजभूषण की यही ताक़त है. वह अपने बाहुबल, राजनीतिक ताक़त और झूठे नैरेटिव चलवाकर महिला पहलवानों को परेशान करने में लगा हुआ है, इसलिए उसकी गिरफ़्तारी ज़रूरी है. पुलिस हमें तोड़ने की बजाए उसको गिरफ़्तार कर ले तो इंसाफ़ की उम्मीद हैं वरना नहीं।

महिला पहलवान पुलिस इन्वेस्टीगेशन के…

— Vinesh Phogat (@Phogat_Vinesh) June 9, 2023

Bajrang Punia, another protesting wrestler, also posted similar tweets.

The Delhi Police's Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the sexual harassment allegations against the outgoing WFI president and BJP MP Singh is likely to submit in the court its investigation report in the two cases registered against him by next week, officials said on Wednesday.

As part of its investigation, the SIT has questioned more than 180 people, the Delhi Police officials said.

Top wrestlers of the country, including Asian Games gold medallist Vinesh Phogat and Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, have been protesting against Singh and demanding his arrest for allegedly sexually harassing female grapplers.

The protesting wrestlers on Wednesday met Sports Minister Anurag Thakur and agreed to suspend their agitation till June 15 after he assured them that a charge sheet against Singh would be filed by then and WFI elections would be held by the end of the month.

The Delhi Police registered two FIRs against Singh following directions of the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court, on April 25, had ordered that the names of the complainant wrestlers, seeking registration of the FIRs against the WFI chief, be redacted from judicial records.

"The identity of the petitioners shall be redacted. Only the redacted petition shall be made available in the public domain...," it had ordered.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)