Former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on Saturday told a Delhi court that the sexual harassment allegations against him are “false and motivated”, The Hindu reported.
Six women wrestlers have accused Singh, a Bharatiya Janata Party MP, of sexual harassment. The Delhi Police registered the first information reports against him in April, upon the intervention of the Supreme Court. On June 15, a 1,000-page chargesheet was filed against Singh.
During the hearing on framing of charges in the case, Singh’s advocate Rajiv Mohan argued before Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Harjeet Singh Jaspal that almost every complainant has changed their statements, PTI reported.
Mohan argued that one of the complainants, who had accused Singh of groping her during a tour to Kazakhstan in 2012, was a member of the sexual harassment committee at the WFI but did not disclose the alleged incident till April.
On another complainant’s allegations that Singh had pulled her towards him on the pretext of taking a photo, Mohan said that the incident occurred in Karnataka’s Ballari in 2021. As it was outside the jurisdiction of Delhi, it cannot be tried in the national capital, Mohan argued.
In another complaint, a wrestler had accused Singh of leaning on her while she was exercising and pulling up her t-shirt on the pretext of checking her breathing during the 2018 Asian Championships in Kyrgyzstan. She also said that Singh put his hand on her stomach and forcefully tried to hug her when she visited the wrestling federation’s office in 2019.
On this, the counsel claimed that the complainant was “totally silent in her statement when she was examined before the oversight committee”.
The court adjourned the hearing to October 16.
In the last hearing on September 23, the Delhi Police told the court that Singh sexually harassed the complainants at every opportunity and that his intention was “to outrage the modesty of the wrestlers”.
In August, the Delhi Police said that there was enough evidence to put Singh and his suspended assistant secretary Vinod Tomar on trial in the sexual harassment case.
Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava also said that an oversight committee, which was formed by the Ministry of Sports, and had exonerated Singh, was “merely a departmental inquiry” and it does not limit the court’s jurisdiction.
At that time, Singh argued before the court that hugging or touching a woman without sexual intent is not an offence.
India’s top wrestlers, including Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia as well as two-time World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat, had launched a protest against Singh in January. The protests resumed in April after no action was taken against Singh by the oversight committee to investigate the allegations.
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