The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) will be overseen by a five-member oversight committee under the direction of boxing legend MC Mary Kom, who will also oversee the investigation into allegations of sexual harassment against WFI president and BJP Lok Sabha MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. For the upcoming month, the committee will manage the day-to-day operations of the wrestling organisation. When the investigation is over, Brij Bhushan Singh was requested to vacate his position as head.
Anurag Thakur, the Union Minister of Sports, made the announcement. According to a tweet from news agency ANI, the panel also includes Olympic medal-winning wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, former badminton player and member of the Mission Olympic Cell Trupti Murgunde, former TOPS CEO Rajagopalan, and former SAI executive director of teams Radhika Sreeman.
“Today, an oversight committee was established. The Oversight Committee will be led by Mary Kom. The committee would look at the claims made by the wrestlers for the upcoming month, Thakur told the reporters in Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, according to news agency ANI.
The committee was established following a protest by wrestlers last week in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, which was spearheaded by Olympic and world champions like Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik, and Ravi Dahiya.
At a press conference last week, Phogat shockingly claimed that “coaches and the WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Sharma had sexually assaulted female wrestlers at national camps.” “Some of the national camp coaches have a history of harassing female wrestlers in a sexual manner. Additionally, the WFI president is complicit in sexual harassment. She had stated that even as Singh disputed the charges, “Many young female wrestlers have protested and sobbed about being sexually abused during national camps.”
After three days of the wrestlers’ protest, Anurag Thakur announced the creation of the committee on Saturday. According to Thakur, the WFI president and coaches have been accused of sexual harassment by wrestlers across the board.
While the accusations of the wrestlers are investigated, the government has suspended WFI official Vinod Tomar and all operations.
