Top Indian wrestlers have been protesting on the streets of New Delhi for the last 10 days over the lack of action against the head of the country’s wrestling federation, Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, whom they accuse of sexual harassment.
Singh, who is also a parliamentarian from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has been accused of harassing several female athletes but has denied all the allegations.
The protesting athletes have demanded an “immediate arrest” and sought the intervention of the Supreme Court, which directed the police to register a case against 66-year-old Singh.
Late on Wednesday night, the athletes camping at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar protest site – a stone’s throw from parliament – alleged that police assaulted them.
“The area is filled with water [due to rains] and there was no place to sleep, so we thought of bringing folding cots. As we were bringing the beds, a male police officer manhandled and abused us,” a sobbing wrestler Vinesh Phogat told reporters.
“The way they have made us suffer, I would not want any athlete to win a medal for the country,” she said.
Photos and videos shared on social media late on Wednesday night showed the police detaining a female journalist, barricading the site and deploying more officers.
Source by:-
Al Jazeera
