Top wrestler Bajrang Punia on Thursday dismissed claims by Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur that he spent 12 hours with athletes protesting against the chief of the sport’s governing body, who has been accused of sexually harassing female players, ANI reported.
On April 23, several athletes, including Olympic bronze medal winners Punia and Sakshi Malik and Commonwealth Games gold medal winner Vinesh Phogat, resumed their sit-in protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar seeking action against Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Singh.
At a press conference on Thursday, Thakur had claimed that the government gave chances to all the protesting wrestlers to present their case before an oversight committee and reiterated its commitment to an “impartial probe” into the charges against Singh.
“I have spent 12 hours with them – seven hours on the first day and five hours the next day [in January],” claimed Thakur. “I had listened to all their grievances, held a press conference at 2-2.30 at night, formed a committee after talking to them.”
The athletes had leveled the allegations against Singh, who is also a Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Uttar Pradesh’s Kaiserganj, first on January 18 during a protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar.
Hours after Thakur’s press conference, Punia refuted Thakur’s claims. “Once ask the sports minister for how long you were sitting among the players,” he claimed. “He sat for 2-4 minutes with the players. His officials were mediating with the players.”
Phogat also echoed Punia’s allegations and said the sports minister didn’t even spend 12 minutes with the sportspersons. Phogat also alleged that the wrestlers were at times even intimidated during the meetings held to resolve the issue.
On January 23, after the protests first began, the sports ministry had formed a oversight committee, headed by boxing legend MC Mary Kom, to investigate the allegations by the wrestlers.
The committee was given a one-month deadline. But the panel submitted its report in the first week of April and its findings have not been made public so far, according to PTI. Singh had appeared before the Indian Olympic Association and the government’s oversight committee in connection with the case.
Singh, who has completed 12 years as the Wrestling Federation of India president, has denied the allegations against him. But the athletes have insisted that they know at least 10-12 women who have been sexually harassed by him.
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