Wrestlers' Protest: Delhi Court To Take Up Brij Bhushan's Charge Sheet For Consideration Today

The Delhi Police on June 15 had filed a 1,500-page charge sheet in the case after intervention by Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur. The hearing will be conducted at 2 pm on Tuesday.

WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh

The Rouse Avenue Court in Delhi will hear the case on the charge sheet filed in the Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh matter on Tuesday. Wrestling Federation of India president and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has been accused of sexually harassing women athletes. The Delhi Police on June 15 had filed a 1,500-page charge sheet in the case after intervention by Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur. The hearing will be conducted at 2 pm on Tuesday by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Harjeet Singh Jaspal.

Earlier in the day, women wrestlers moved the court seeking a copy of the charge sheet filed against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. The charge sheet has been filed under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment), 354-D (stalking), and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

The charge sheet also named Vinod Tomar, the suspended assistant secretary of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), for offences under sections 109 (abetment of any offence, if the act abetted is committed in consequence, and where no express provision is made for its punishment), 354, 354-A and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

Another FIR was also registered against Singh under the POCSO Act on the basis of allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him by a minor wrestler. She was among the seven female grapplers who had accused Singh of sexual harassment.

Both the FIRs narrate several alleged instances of sexual harassment like inappropriate touching, groping, stalking and intimidation by Singh at different times and places over a decade.

In the minor’s case, the Delhi Police had on June 15 filed a final report seeking cancellation of the FIR. A cancellation report is filed in cases where police fail to find corroborative evidence after due investigation. According to news agency PTI, the father of the minor wrestler said that he and his daughter had filed a "false" police complaint of sexual harassment against Singh because they wanted to get back at him for perceived injustice against the girl.