Boxer and Olympic medalist Boxer Mary Kom will lead the Sports Department’s Oversight Committee to manage the day-to-day affairs of the wrestling agency in the #MeToo scene. The ministry on Saturday directed the Indian Wrestling Federation to suspend “all ongoing activities with immediate effect”, including the Ranked Tournament in Gonda, UP, Sharan’s stronghold. It also suspended the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) assistant secretary Vinod Tomar, as a result of allegations by wrestlers of sexual harassment and corruption against the head of the body sports, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
Last week, federation sports minister Anurag Thakur announced the formation of the oversight committee after a lengthy meeting with protest wrestlers including Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik, Babita Phogat, among others. .
“It has been decided that an oversight committee will be formed. The name of the committee will be announced tomorrow. The committee will complete its investigation within four weeks. The wrestlers made their request. . I have assured them that appropriate steps will be taken. All allegations of sexual harassment and financial embezzlement will be investigated,” Thakur said at a news conference on Saturday.
“Until the investigation is over, he (Singh) will resign and cooperate with the investigation and the oversight committee will run the day-to-day affairs of the WFI.”
Earlier, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) formed a seven-member committee to investigate allegations of sexual harassment by wrestlers against federation president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Mary Kom is also the chair of that board. Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) President Sahdev Yadav, archer Dola Banerjee, Olympic medalist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt were members of the panel among others. The committee will also have two attorneys. The panel will first talk to the opposing wrestlers and then the WFI before reaching any conclusions.
Vinesh Phogat, the first Indian female wrestler to win a gold medal in both the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games, said on Wednesday that “national coaches sexually abused women wrestlers for many years and was threatened with death by WFI officials.” She, along with other top Indian wrestlers, staged a mass rally at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi from Wednesday, where they called for the dismissal of the WFI president.
Rio Olympic medalist Sakshi Malik, world champion medalist Sarita Mor, Sangeeta Phogat, Anshu Malik, Sonam Malik, Satywart Malik, Jitender Kinha, Amit Dhankar and CWG Sumit medalist Malik was among the wrestlers who gathered at the famous protest site.
“It is better to die once than to die slowly day by day. We can’t sleep at night because we don’t know if we can participate in the contest or not. We can participate in the national camp or not. We suspect that the this trainer and their supporters can increase our food intake and we can be positive during the doping test,” Vinesh Phogat previously told NDTV.
“So we worry about all this. When President Brij Bhushan ji said he was innocent, I tell you we sent him a lot of letters but he never paid him back. Do we have to go to his room for each and everything?”
Vinesh, a world champion medalist and Olympic athlete, also claimed that some coaches at the national camp in Lucknow exploited female wrestlers, adding that some women Women at the camp approached the wrestlers on the orders of the WFI President.
“Some coaches are close to national federations. Those coaches have exploited young girls. I don’t know how many young girls have suffered because of them,” Vinesh said.
The 28-year-old woman, though clarified that she herself does not face such exploitation, claims that she has received death threats on the orders of the WFI president from pro-government officials. approached him because she dared to draw the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on some of the issues plaguing Indians. wrestling when she met him after the Tokyo Olympics.
“I know at least 10-20 female wrestlers who told me about the sexual exploitation they faced at the hands of (President) WFI. They told me their stories. I couldn’t. name them now but I can certainly reveal if we get to meet the Prime Minister and Interior Minister of the country,” Vinesh said.
“I’ve received death threats from people close to the WFI President. If anything happens to any of us sitting here, only the WFI President should be held accountable.”
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