Wrestlers will participate in Asian Games only when issues are resolved: Sakshi Malik

Wrestler Sakshi Malik on Saturday said that she and the other two protesting wrestlers, including Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat, would participate.

In the Asian Games only after their issues get resolved, referring to their protests against the Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Singh.

“We will participate in Asian Games only when all these issues will be resolved. You can’t understand what we’re going through mentally each day,” Malik said in Hindi while talking to reporters.

Referring to the chargesheet in the case against the WFI chief, Wrestler Bajrang Punia said that if action wasn’t taken by June 15 then the wrestlers would call a bigger protest.

“We have told the government that if action is not taken by June 15, then we will give a bigger call for protest and take a decision,” he said.

During the wrestlers’ meeting with Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Wednesday, Thakur said the police would file a chargesheet in the sexual harassment case against Brij Bhushan Singh by June 15. He also told the wrestlers that the WFI elections would be held by June 30.

Based on these assurances, the wrestlers have agreed to halt their protests till June 15.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE PROBE
As part of its investigation, the Delhi Police on Friday took wrestler Sangeeta Phogat to WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s official residence to recreate the sequence of events that led to the sexual harassment of which he has been accused, as per a PTI report.

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 arrest 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.

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 to the court its investigation report in the two cases registered against him by next week, officials said on Wednesday.