WRESTLERS PROTEST

against the protesters and their supporters.

As the unprecedented show of player power continued for the third straight day against alleged violations by sports officials, the champion wrestlers, in a letter addressed to IOA president PT Usha complained that several young wrestlers have come to them with accounts of sexual harassment by the WFI president. They also raised charges of “financial misappropriation”, of Vinesh being “mentally tortured” by Singh after she failed to win a medal at the Tokyo Olympics, and of coaches and sports science staff in the national camp being “informants” of WFI chief rather than having any sporting credentials.

This was the first time in three days that the wrestlers put their allegations down in writing.

“We request IOA to immediately appoint a committee to enquire into the complaints of sexual harassment; resignation of WFI president and dissolution of WFI,” the letter said. It called for a new committee being formed to run the affairs of WFI “in consultation with the wrestlers”.

The letter led to IOA calling an urgent meeting of the executive council under its new president and track legend Usha. The meeting was also attended by Beijing Olympics gold medallist and International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Abhinav Bindra as a special invitee.

After a discussion, the executive council appointed a seven-member committee to probe the allegations of sexual harassment against Singh.

The committee will be led by Athletes Commission chairperson and boxing legend MC Mary Kom. The other members from the IOA executive council on the panel are Alaknanda Ashok, Olympic medallist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, Olympian archer Dola Banerjee, Sahdev Yadav, and advocates Shlok Chandra and Talish Ray.

“It was unanimously agreed that IOA must not get carried away by media trials. The EC unanimously decided that a committee will be formed in accordance with the Prevention of Sexual Harassment of women act (2013) and must hear both sides and submit a report to the IOA president,” IOA said in a statement.

Later in the evening, an underfire Singh called a meeting of WFI at his home town Gonda. Meanwhile, his son, Pratik Bhushan Singh, said that Brij Bhushan will speak to the media after a WFI meeting on January 22. “We are not formally authorised to speak on this issue. He (Brij Bhushan) will address the media on January 22 at the Annual General Meet of WFI. We have given our statement to sports ministry,” he said.

But insiders in the federation said that WFI, under Brij Bhushan, was planning to go on the offensive by taking “tough action” against the agitating wrestlers during the meeting on Sunday. “WFI has decided to take action against these wrestlers, who are holding the federation hostage. They don’t want to follow the rules and regulations of WFI and want to run the body on their whims and fancies. We are not going to succumb to any pressure,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

On Thursday, WFI alleged that protesting wrestlers were spreading “misinformation” and trying to stop other athletes from participating in the National Ranking Tournament that begins in Gonda on Saturday.

The wrestlers met sports minister Thakur for a second time after a nearly four-hour long late-night meeting on Thursday in which they were unable to reach a solution. The second meeting, which began at around 9pm on Friday, was on till at least midnight.

Speaking for the wrestlers earlier in the day, Punia said no political party is backing them, and they are fighting for their rights. “We are sad that the athletes have to sit here in protest leaving their practice. It is a very important year for us with world championships, Olympic qualifiers, and the Asian Games scheduled. One missed day of practice means a big loss. We want a quick resolution to be found and we can go back to our training,” said the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist at Jantar Mantar.

Some other athletes lent their support to the wrestlers on Friday, with Olympic medallist boxer Vijender Singh, who is also a Congress leader, paying a visit but not sitting on the dais. Boxing world champion Nikhat Zareen, boxing CWG gold medallist Amit Panghal, and badminton star Jwala Gutta posted comments on social media backing their compatriots.

SHAH AT IB CONFERENCE

ity building, police technology, critical infrastructure security and securing digital goods,” the home minister said.

The Prime Minister will also be present at the conference, which is taking place at PUSA institute in Delhi, on Saturday and Sunday and interact with the chiefs of state police forces and central agencies. National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is also taking part in the conference.

Addressing the officers on the first day of conference, Shah said that police have to keep up with the changing times as issues have now become thematic and multidimensional.

“Earlier, India’s problems were geographical such as unrest in the North-east, terrorism in Jammu & Kashmir, Leftwing extremism-affected areas. But now they are thematic like cybersecurity and data security. The problems also have become multidimensional as narco terror and fourth generation war have chipped in,” he said.

Among the issues likely to be discussed includes managing the influence of Chinese commercial entities that are engaged in counter-intelligence in India, and a rise in cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, the people cited above said.

Other important security issues on the agenda for this year’s conference include challenges posed by cryptocurrencies, implementation of 5G technology, unfenced land borders, mass agitations, overstaying foreigners, radical organisations, Khalistani activities, and use of Interpol to achieve international cooperation, the people added.

“Sustained intelligence investigations since 2020 have revealed a disturbing picture of the role of Chinese Commercial Entities (CCE) in India. They are used by the Chinese state in line with its ‘thousand grains of sand’ approach to intelligence collection to fuel the state’s limitless hunger for data and secrets. CCEs operate in India with five primary objectives: to influence minds, to build economic control, for acquisition of data; for counter-intelligence (CI)/espionage; and to target scientists for innovation and IPRs,” a counterterrorism officer said, asking not to be named.

The Intelligence Bureau recently created a new subgroup under MAC (multiagency centre) named CCORD (China Coordination Centre) to interact closely with financial enforcement agencies in order to investigate CCEs. ulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation imposed a penalty of ₹30 lakh on Air India, suspended the license of the pilot-in-command of the New York-Delhi flight, and slapped a fine of ₹3 lakh on the airline’s director of in-flight services for failing to discharge her duties. Air India did not respond to HT’s request for comment. One of the earliest messages was sent at 3.46pm — the flight landed at 1pm — and it was also acknowledged by the recipient, Sandeep Verma, head of IFSD, with a quick “Ok, noted.”

Wilson himself also received an e-mail from the woman passenger’s son-in-law on the same evening, and forwarded the mail to the head of customer care, asking that it be attended to. HT has reviewed a copy of these mails too. On January 4, media reports first highlighted the incident, causing outrage among the public at large, and prompting DGCA, which did not know about it till then, to act.

At the time, the airline said the delay in reporting the matter to DGCA was because the crew did not report it on time. “We have also constituted an internal committee to probe lapses on part of Air India’s crew and address the deficiencies that delayed quick redressal of the situation...,” Air India said in a statement on January 4. Separately, an airline official, who asked not to be named, told HT at the time that there were failures at multiple levels. “Failure in invoking the unruly passenger

AI-URINATION INCIDENT