The FIR against the protesting wrestlers will be withdrawn by the Delhi Police, sources.
On May 28, an FIR was registered against the organisers of the wrestlers’ protest, including Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The wrestlers, protesting against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and demanding his arrest over allegations of sex harassment, tried to march from Jantar Mantar in Delhi to the parliament on May 28, during the inauguration of the new parliament complex.
The police had then detained the wrestlers and later registered an FIR against the grapplers.
Reacting to the FIR, Vinesh Phogat said a new history was being written. “The Delhi Police takes seven days to file an FIR against Brij Bhushan for sexual harassment but did not take even seven hours to file an FIR against us for carrying out a peaceful protest.
Has the country slipped into a dictatorship? The entire world is watching how the government is treating its players. A new history is being written,” Phogat said on Twitter.
Reacting to the detention, Bajrang Punia asked: “Police have kept me in their custody. They are not saying anything. Have I committed any crime? Brij Bhushan should have been in jail. Why have we been kept in prison?”
The wrestlers were charged under Section 147 (guilty of rioting), Section 149 (unlawful assembly), 186 (obstructing a public servant from discharging duty), 188 (disobedience to an order duly promulgated by a public servant), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) and 353 (criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty) of the Indian Penal code.
The protestors were also facing charges under Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.