Wrestlers finally approach magistrate court; No more women’s national camps at Lucknow centre after IOA’s ad-hoc body chooses NIS Patiala | More sports News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: The group of protesting wrestlers, who are demanding the arrest of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, approached the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM), Harjeet Singh Jaspal, on Wednesday with a plea to monitor the police investigation against the Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) sidelined president and to expedite the judicial process into the matter.
TOI has learnt that the Rouse Avenue district court judge has summoned the Investigation Officer (IO) in his court on May 12 and has directed him to file a status report in the case. After the development, sources informed the publication that the Delhi Police has started recording the statements of seven women wrestlers, who complained of sexual harassment by Singh, under Sec 164 of the CrPC act before the magistrate. Earlier, the police had recorded the statements of complainants under Sec 161 of the CrPC, which was not admissible in the court of law.

After the Supreme Court had, on May 4, decided to close proceedings on the plea of sexual harassment allegations against Singh, the CJI-led two-judge bench of the apex court had told the women petitioners to either move the magistrate or Delhi High Court with their grievance.
On May 12, only the lawyers of the wrestlers will be present in the ACMM court during the hearing.
In another major development, the Indian Olympic Association‘s (IOA) two-member ad-hoc committee, in consultation with the Sports Authority of India (SAI), has decided to shift the venue of the women’s wrestling national camp from Lucknow to NIS Patiala for all future purposes. This was one of the demands of the protesting women wrestlers to hold the national camps, trials and domestic competitions anywhere in the country, except for Singh’s home state of Uttar Pradesh where he wields a considerable clout.

In a statement, the ad-hoc committee also informed that the national camps for men’s freestyle and greco-roman wrestlers will be held at SAI centre in Sonepat. “It has been decided that the national camps would be held at SAI Sonepat (men’s greco-roman and freestyle) and SAI Patiala (women’s wrestling) centres in future,” the committee stated.
The committee also announced the dates for selection trials for the Under-17 and U-23 Asian wrestling championships, scheduled to be held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan from June 10-18. “The selection trials will be held at SAI’s Sonepat and Patiala centres from May 17 till May 20. While the selection trials for women wrestling and men’s greco-roman wrestlers will be held at SAI Patiala centre, selection trials for men’s freestyle will be held at SAI Sonepat centre. The selection trials will be open to all wrestlers in the respective age and weight categories,” the statement added.

At Jantar Mantar on Wednesday, the agitating wrestlers, led by Olympians Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik, held a press conference and demanded a lie detector narco test on Singh under the supervision of the Supreme Court. Singh, a BJP-strongman and six-time Lok Sabha MP, had claimed innocence during several news channel interviews and said he was ready to face any kind of investigation.
“Those speaking in favour of the WFI chief and saying that we are lying, I would say Brij Bhushan should undergo a narco test under the supervision of the Supreme Court. The same goes for the seven women wrestlers who have complained of sexual harassment by him. Whosoever is found guilty, hang them,” said Sakshee, 2016 Rio Olympics bronze medallist.
Vinesh said the wrestlers will wear black armbands on Thursday to register their protest against alleged inaction by the Delhi police and authorities.
“I appeal to all the individuals and organisations supporting us to come and join us in a black armband protest on Thursday,” said the reigning Asian Games and CWG champion.
Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist Bajrang said they would welcome the holding of national camps and competitions by the Indian Olympic Association’s (IOA) two-member ad-hoc committee, mandated to run the day-to-day affairs of the WFI and to hold its elections within 45 days of its formation. The committee came into existence on April 27.
“I request the IOA’s ad-hoc committee to organise all the tournaments, because we do not want to hold back wrestling activities. We are not calling wrestlers here (protest site) because their training and preparations will suffer. We laud the formation of the ad-hoc committee. We have major international events such as the Asian Games and Olympic qualifiers coming up. The committee should organise tournaments but not by someone who has serious allegations levelled against him,” he said.