'Shilajit Ki Roti Khata Tha Roz?' WFI Chief Brij Bhushan On Charges That He Sexually Assaulted '1,000 Children'

In an interview with ABP News, WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh responded to the sexual harassment allegations with a controversial statement, asking if he was eating "rotis with Shilajit."

Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh responded to sexual harassment allegations levelled by female wrestlers on Monday (May 1), claiming that he has sexually abused over 1,000 women. "They first claimed that I sexually abused over 100 children, then they said 1,000 children," the WFI chief said in an interview with ABP News. "Was I eating Shilajit rotis every day?" he added. 

"Pehle kehte hain 1,000 baccho ke saath hua, pehle kehte hain 100 baccho ke saath hua. Kya main Shilajit ki roti khata tha roz?" WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh said during the interview in Hindi. Since April 23, the country's top wrestlers, including Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, and Bajrang Punia, have been protesting, demanding criminal charges be brought against Singh for allegedly sexually harassing and intimidating seven wrestlers, including a minor.

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On Friday, the Delhi Police filed two FIRs against Singh on sexual harassment allegations made by seven female wrestlers. The FIRs were filed just hours after the Delhi Police's Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told an apex court bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha that a case would be registered on Friday.

While the first FIR was filed in response to allegations made by a minor wrestler and was filed under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, the second was filed in response to outraging women's modesty.

Politicians including Congress party leaders Priyanka Gandhi, Navjot Singh Sidhu, and Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Rashtriya Lok Dal leader Jayant Chaudhary, former Jammu, and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik, and Delhi government ministers Atishi Marlena and Saurabh Bhardwaj have visited the protest site in recent days to express their support for the athletes.

The wrestlers have stated that they will remain at the protest site until Singh is apprehended. Last week, they resumed their sit-in, demanding that the findings of the panel that investigated the allegations be made public.