Woman wrestler at WFI chief’s office: Police recreates sequence of events at BJP MP’s office

New Delhi: Stepping up its probe into sexual harassment allegations against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and BJP MP, 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. It may be mentioned that Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s official residence houses the office of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).

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 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 of 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.

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.

International referee Jagbir Singh on Thursday claimed that he has been a witness to Brij Bhushan’s inappropriate behaviour towards female grapplers on several occasions since 2013. “I have known Brij Bhushan for a long time,” Jagbir told PTI. “I couldn’t say much because until the girls registered complaints, I could not do anything. But I saw the episode with my own eyes and felt bad,” he said. Jagbir said he witnessed Brij Bhushan’s misbehaviour with his own eyes on numerous occasions. “After he became the president during his second tour in 2013 in Kazakhstan, the president told us ‘I will feed you Indian food today’ and he arranged a party in the junior wrestlers’ hotel,” he claimed. “Brij Bhushan and his accomplices from Thailand were drunk and they misbehaved with the girls and I was a witness to that. “In 2022, I witnessed something. Whenever the president used to travel inside the country for national tournaments, two to three girls were always with him but we could never protest. We have seen that with our eyes.” Jagbir, in fact, has corroborated the protesting wrestler’s allegations in his testimony to the Delhi Police. Asked about Brij Bhushan’s denial of all the allegations, Jagbir said: “Does a thief ever say I have stolen?