The Delhi Police on Thursday denied that it had withdrawn security cover provided to the wrestlers who had levelled allegations of sexual harassment against Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
Six women wrestlers have accused Singh of sexual harassment. The Delhi Police registered a first information report against him in April 2023, following the intervention of the Supreme Court. On June 15, the police filed a 1,000-page chargesheet against him.
Earlier on Thursday, wrestler Vinesh Phogat alleged in a post on X that the Delhi Police withdrew the security of the women wrestlers who were going to testify against Singh in court.
Three of the wrestlers also approached a Delhi court, saying that their security cover had been withdrawn a day before one of them was to testify against Singh, Live Law reported.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Priyanka Rajpoot of the Rouse Avenue court directed the Delhi Police to make immediate and appropriate arrangements to ensure that security cover is provided to the wrestler until her deposition is completed and further orders.
The court also directed the deputy commissioner of police concerned to submit a report on the reasons for withdrawing the security cover of the women wrestlers.
However, in a social media post, the Delhi Police denied the allegations and said that a decision was made to ask the Haryana Police to take over their security as the wrestlers lived in the state.
“The assigned Delhi Police PSOs [personal security officers] misunderstood this decision and got delayed in reporting today,” it said in a post on X, adding that the situation had been rectified and that the security cover provided to them continued.
The Delhi Police had filed the chargesheet on June 15 last year against Singh, months after India’s top wrestlers, including Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia and Phogat, had launched protests seeking his arrest.
The police, in the first information report, alleged that Singh demanded sexual favours in exchange for professional help from at least two female wrestlers, as well as harassed over half a dozen players.
During a court hearing on May 21, Singh pleaded not guilty to the charges. Last month, a Delhi court granted him bail in the case.
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