Five-member panel to run India wrestling body
A FIVE-member panel led by boxer MC Mary Kom will manage the daily running of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), which has been hit with sexual harassment allegations, India’s sports minister said on Monday (23).
The country’s top wrestlers staged a sit-in protest in the capital New Delhi last week accusing WFI President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and coaches of sexually harassing several female wrestlers.
Singh has denied any wrongdoing but the sports ministry has stripped the WFI top brass of all administrative powers and tasked an oversight committee with running the federation and looking into the allegations.
‘The WFI president will stay away from the federation’s day-to-day administrative duties and the oversight committee will take over,’ sports minister Anurag Thakur told reporters.
‘Over the next one month, the committee will hear all the parties involved and carry out its own investigation before submitting their report to us.’
Apart from Mary Kom, the face of Indian women’s boxing, the five-member committee includes Olympic bronze medalist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt and former badminton player Trupti Murgunde.
Dozens of male and female wrestlers, including Olympic and Commonwealth medalists, had announced a boycott of all competitions until WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh was removed.
Singh, who is also a member of parliament from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has denied the allegations.
Wrestler Bajrang Punia announced the decision to call off the protest after talks with Thakur on Friday (20).
‘The minister told us that a committee will be formed (to look into the allegations) and it will complete its work in one month,‘ Punia told reporters.
‘We are confident that a thorough probe will be conducted.’
The protest was led by Vinesh Phogat, a three-time Commonwealth Games champion, who has accused Singh of harassing ‘several young wrestlers‘ and said that she knew ‘at least 10 to 20 girls’ who had recounted sexual harassment at wrestling camps.
She has said that both girls and boys have come forward to accuse other senior figures in the sport of harassment and bullying.
In a letter to P.T. Usha, president of the Indian Olympic Association on Friday, Phogat and other top athletes said it had taken a lot of courage for them to come forward.