The tension between the wrestlers and the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has increased in the last couple of months as the wrestlers raised allegations against him in their protest at the Jantar Mantar. The Sports Ministry acted swiftly and appointed an Oversight Committee led by ace Indian boxer Mary Kom to investigate the matter and also take care of the daily happenings of the federation for the welfare of the wrestlers.
After 35 days, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh appeared in front of the panel which sidelined him due to allegations raised against him by the top wrestlers in the country. He firmly rejected all the allegations that were raised by the wrestlers including intimidation and sexual abuse claims.
The top wrestlers from India protested against the WFI chief for sexually abusing female wrestlers, intimidating others and also running the federation in an autocratic manner.
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh appeared in front of the panel along with some of his supporters. The meeting went on for three hours and the WFI chief firmly denied all the allegations raised against him. “Brij Bhushan appeared before the committee today. He straightaway denied all the allegations. He said he never did anything wrong,” a sports ministry source told PTI.
The WFI chief did not speak a word in front of the media who were waiting for his statement at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) headquarters. He said that the investigation is still on and therefore he would not like to make any comment on this matter.
The allegations that have been raised against him have been put up by eminent wrestlers from the country including, Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik, Ravi Dahiya and many others. Recently Vinesh even accused the one member of the Oversight Committee of leaking information about the sensitive topic to the media.
The Oversight Committee was recently given a longer run to produce the report from their investigation. They will submit a report to the Sports Ministry in two weeks time.
