Minister of Sports Anurag Thakur had announced on Monday that a five-member watchdog committee, headed by legendary boxer MC Mary Kom, would investigate the charges against the Indian Wrestling Federation boss and also manage the day-to-day affairs of the sports body.
Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat, Sarita Mor and Sakshi Malik, who staged a sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar for three days to demand the removal of the WFI chairman, expressed their disappointment at not being consulted ahead of the training of the committee.
“The ministry does not intend to reconstitute the oversight committee to investigate the allegations against WFI chief Brij Bhushan Singh,” a ministry source told PTI on Wednesday.
“We have formed a fair committee under Mary Kom who will go into the details of the case,” the source said, adding that the government is unhappy with the behavior of the wrestlers as they went public with their reservations about the fight. formation of the committee.
According to sources, protest wrestlers see London Olympics bronze medalist Yogeshwar as close to the WFI president. In fact, when Yogeshwar backed Sharan under fire, Vinesh had said he was “sitting in WFI’s lap”.
The wrestlers had taken to Twitter to express their dismay on Tuesday.
However, on Wednesday, Bajrang clarified that the grapplers had no problem with Yogeshwar but expected to be consulted before the members were finalized.
“We would like to speak with the sports minister after the Republic Day celebrations. We have no problem with the committee members, but we should have been consulted,” Bajrang Punia told PTI.
When asked if any names were discussed with them, Bajrang said, “A discussion took place and these names came up, but we were told to come back to the names after discussion.
“But the names were announced before we answered in the affirmative. The government should not be unhappy with us. What have we done, we are fighting for justice,” he added.
Besides Yogeshwar, former badminton player and member of Mission Olympic Cell Trupti Murgunde, former CEO of TOPS Rajagopalan and former executive director of SAI-teams- Radhica Sreeman are also members of the committee.
May Kom and Yogeshwar are also part of the seven-member committee formed by the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to investigate allegations of sexual harassment and corruption against the WFI chief.
Besides legendary boxer Mary Kom and wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, the IOA panel includes archer Dola Banerjee and Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWLF) President and IOA Treasurer Sahdev Yadav.
Other members of the IOA committee are two lawyers – Talish Ray and Shlok Chandra – in addition to former commuter and IOA co-secretary Alaknanda Ashok, who serves as its vice-chair.
The restless wrestlers including youths Anshu Malik, Sangeeta Phogat and Sonam Malik among others started the protest sit-in at Jantar Mantar here on Wednesday and demanded the WFI chief’s sacking.
The wrestlers had accused Sharan, who is also a BJP MP, of acting like a dictator and sexually harassing junior wrestlers.
The wrestlers did not reveal the identities of the athletes who were sexually harassed.
