WFI chief meets Oversight Committee; rejects sexual abuse and other accusations

New Delhi, Feb 28: Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh rejected allegations of sexual abuse and other serious charges in front of the government-appointed Oversight Committee.

Singh, along with his group of supporters, appeared for a meeting with the Committee, which is chaired by boxer Mary Kom and has been investigating charges of sexual harassment of female wrestlers, athlete mismanagement, financial irregularities, and other charges against WFI and its top brass.

"Brij Bhushan appeared before the committee today. He straightaway denied all the allegations. He said he never did anything wrong," a sports ministry source told PTI.

Brij Bhushan, however, evaded the waiting media at the SAI headquarters here, saying the investigation is still on and he won't like to make any comment at this point of time.

The allegations were levelled by prominent grapplers such as Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Ravi Dahiya.

The wrestlers have already deposed before the committee.

In January, the country's top wrestlers had staged a three-day sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar, demanding that Brij Bhushan be removed and WFI be disbanded.

The BJP MP was later asked to step aside till the completion of the probe into his alleged misconduct.

The Mary Kom-led committee has former wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, former shuttler Trupti Murgunde, SAI member Radhica Sreeman and Rajesh Rajagopalan, ex-CEO, Target Olympic Podium Scheme and CWG gold medallist Babita Phogat as its members.

The wrestlers have also alleged that one member of the committee, apparently 2012 London Olympic bronze medallist Dutt, is leaking sensitive information related to the probe with media.

They feel that Dutt is siding with the WFI boss.

India lost the hosting rights of the Asian Championship after wrestlers submitted a written complaint to UWW, the world governing body of the game, about the alleged misconduct of the WFI chief.

The event will now be hosted in Astana in April.

With inputs from PTI