Agitating wrestlers suspend their agitation till June 15 after meeting with Anurag Thakur

Agitating wrestlers have finally agreed for a pause. After meeting the Union Sports Minister, Anurag Thakur, they have decided to suspend their ongoing agitation till June 15.

The Minister, reports said, asked wrestlers to wait till police completes its probe into all complaints of sexual harassment against the President of the Wrestling Federation (WFI) Brij Bhushan Singh by June 15.

“We were told that the police investigation will be complete by June 15. Till then, we have been asked to wait and suspend the protest,” Sakshi Malik told reporters after the meeting. Wrestlers Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia, and Satyawart Kadiyan  represented the agitating wrestlers at the meeting with Anurag Thakur that continued for nearly five hours.

“We spoke on various issues, including safety of both female and male wrestlers, and the cases that were registered against the wrestlers, will be taken back, the government has agreed to these demands,” wrestler Bajrang Punia said.

The Delhi Police on May 29 had booked the organisers of the wrestlers’ protest at Jantar Mantar and their supporters on charges of rioting and obstructing public servants in discharge of duty after some of them were detained while marching to the new Parliament building on May 28.

Leaders of agitating wrestlers asserted that their agitation was not yet over and they had suspended their protest only till June 15 as requested by the government. Speaking to reporters following the meeting, Thakur said that the WFI will have an Internal Complaints Committee, headed by a woman. WFI elections will be held by June 30, he added.

Thakur said that all these decisions were taken unanimously, in the “positive meeting.” Regarding the FIR registered against the WFI chief, the Sports Minister said that the chargesheet is to be filed by June 15.

It is the second meeting between the government and protesting wrestlers, who met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday night.

A delegation consisting of wrestlers and their coaches had met with Home Minister Amit Shah at his official residence on late June 3. A source told The Hindu, “In the meeting, which lasted for around two hours, the wrestlers pressed for timely action and demanded an unbiased investigation, to which, the Home Minister told them to trust the process of investigation, which is still under way and the law shall take its course.”

In the said meeting, wrestlers requested the Home Minister to take back the FIR filed against them. An FIR was registered against the wrestlers on May 28, after they had marched towards the new Parliament building during its inauguration. They were booked under rioting.

Earlier, a team of Delhi Police visited Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s residence in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh to investigate the sexual harassment charges against him, officers said on June 6.

Officers said the investigating police team questioned roughly a dozen employees and associates of Singh and recorded their statements. A source in the Delhi Police said that the team visited Singh’s residence late on Monday and then again on Tuesday morning.

Prabhjot Singh