Six days after India’s elite wrestlers took to the streets challenging a First Information Report (FIR) be filed towards Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Delhi Police agreed to resort the FIR on Friday, bringing what the wrestlers termed their “First victory in quest for justice.”
Appearing prior to a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha, the police, represented via Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, mentioned, “The FIR will be registered today.” The protesting wrestlers and their supporters, monitoring the improvement right through the day on social media, broke into a noisy cheer once the inside track used to be made public.
“It is the first significant victory in our long battle for justice. We would like to commend the honorable Supreme Court for keeping our faith alive in the judiciary,” Tokyo Olympics bronze medalist Bajrang Punia advised a packed press convention.
The protesting wrestlers, along side seven complainants together with a minor, had approached the Cannought Place police station closing Friday to resort an FIR towards Singh however they had been grew to become again after the police registered just a criticism. They started their sit-in on Sunday and moved the apex courtroom previous this week.
“We won’t call off the dharna until Brij Bhushan is arrested,” mentioned Rio Games bronze medalist Sakshi Malik. “This (FIR) is only the first step. We are here for the long battle. We will decide our future course of action after an internal consultation.”
The wrestlers reiterated their distrust of Delhi Police and mentioned that any evidence relating the alleged sexual harassment via Singh can be submitted simplest to the Supreme Court, and “not to some committee or Delhi Police.”
“It took Delhi Police six days and the intervention of the country’s highest court to agree to file an FIR. How can we trust them? Some people say that the report of the oversight committee had no proof of sexual harassment. I would like to say That we have enough proofs and we will share them only with the court,” Vinesh Phogat, a a couple of World Championships medallist, mentioned.
“Singh has a long history of criminal offences. We can’t have such a man running our sport. We want the strictest punishment for him. We also want his parliament membership to be dissolved,” Phogat added. Singh is a six-time Member of Parliament from UP’s Kaiserganj and belongs to the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
Speaking on the backdrop of a banner record Singh’s 38 legal instances, Punia mentioned, “As you can see, he has a long criminal past. We want security for the complainants and us.” Punia and Phogat have time and again alleged makes an attempt to intimidate them and the complainants.
Reacting to the FIR, Singh mentioned he has complete religion within the courtroom and pledged co-operation with Delhi Police. “I have full faith in the judiciary. I am not running anywhere. I am in my house. I will cooperate with Delhi Police. I will follow whatever decision Supreme Court takes,” Singh advised ANI.
Finding some make stronger
Earlier, Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Neeraj Chopra led the bandwagon of athletes who took to Twitter to provide their make stronger to the wrestlers.
Training in Turkey forward of his subsequent month’s season-opener, Chopra mentioned, “As a nation, we are responsible for safeguarding the integrity and dignity of every individual, athlete or not.”
“What’s happening should never happen. This is a sensitive issue and must be dealt with in an impartial and transparent manner. Concerned authorities must take quick action in order to ensure that justice is served.”
Chopra’s feedback — coming an afternoon after Beijing Games gold medalist Abhinav Bindra and six-time Winter Olympian Shiva Keshavan tweeted for the wrestlers — had been adopted via a glut of tweets from athletes throughout sports activities.
Cricketers Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan, and Virender Sehwag, two-time global champion boxer Nikhat Zareen, and trailblazing tennis celebrity Sania Mirza had been a number of the distinguished sportspersons who tweeted.
“I would like to thank every sportsperson who has supported us. Both of our individual gold medalists at the Olympics have tweeted in our support, probably because they understand the pain of athletes,” Punia mentioned.
Phogat known as on different athletes who could have been subjected to sexual harassment to “come forward and join our protest.”
“This sit-in is not for wrestling alone. We need to weed out people like Singh from every sport. I urge my fellow athletes who may have faced such harassment to gather courage and join us,” she added.