Wrestlers protest: 'Sports Ministry is ignoring our calls, we are protesting until we get justice,' say star wrestlers

Star Indian wrestlers on Sunday returned to New Delhi's Jantar Mantar after three months to restart their protest against the Wrestling Federation of India and its top brass while claiming that the Union Sports Ministry hasn't kept its promises.

The wrestlers, who held a press conference at the sight on late Sunday afternoon, also claimed that they went to the police with seven female wrestlers to file a complaint against WFI's former president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh but the police refused to take any action.

The wrestlers, led by Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, and Sakshi Malik, demanded justice while claiming that the Anurag Thakur-led ministry and its officials have stopped responding to their messages and have not taken any action since its Oversight Committee filed a report against them.

"We are going to sleep and eat here till we get justice. We have been trying to contact them (the sports ministry and its officials) for three months," said Vinesh. "The members of the committee are not responding to us, sports ministry has also not said anything, they don't even pick up our calls. We have won medals for the country and have put our careers at stake for this."

Bajrang added that they are going to continue the protest until justice is done and Brijbhushan is arrested while adding police refused to take their complaint.

"We haven't got justice, that's why we are protesting again. We demand justice. Seven women wrestlers went to the police to file a complaint but no action was taken. We are not going anywhere until Brijbhushan is arrested," said Bajrang.

To rejig readers' memory, Sports Minister Thakur was able to convince the wrestlers to call off their three-day-long protest back in January after assuring that the right action will be taken against the long-serving WFI president following an investigation.

Thakur then formed a six-member committee, chaired by boxer Mary Kom, to investigate the grave charges of sexual harassment, elite athlete mismanagement, and financial irregularities. The committee, which didn't include any member from the judiciary, was granted a month's time to file their report.

The body later submitted its report after asking for an additional period to complete its inquiry. The wrestlers on Sunday asked the ministry to make the report public while claiming that it included complaints from women wrestlers, including a minor girl.

"We want the report, which has recorded women wrestlers' statements, to be public. It's a sensitive issue, one of the complainants is a minor girl," said Vinesh, adding that names of the complainants must not be leaked.

The committee submitted its report back in April but since then nothing was made public by the sports ministry. Brij Bhushan, who is the incumbent MP of BJP from UP's Kaiserganj district, earlier rejected all the charges made against him and a week ago said he won't be running for the post of WFI chief anymore.

"We had to schedule elections earlier, but due to the recent controversy, we could not hold the elections earlier, but now we will move forward. I will follow the Sports Code and not contest for president's post," Brij Bhushan told PTI.

The National Sports Code doesn't allow the 66-year-old official to run for the WFI top post anymore as he has already served three consecutive tenures (12 years) at the helm of the body. He is required to go for a four-year cooling-off period while his son Prateek Singh is being touted to run for the presidential post. Meanwhile Brij Bhushan has added that he may run for another post at the federation instead.