New Delhi: The Delhi Police have filed cases against the protesting wrestlers who were trying to march to parliament on Sunday to protest against BJP MP and Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, whom they have accused of sexual harassment.
The police used brutal force against the wrestlers on Sunday (May 28), detaining them and their supporters in Delhi and in adjoining states. Several opposition leaders, women’s rights activists and others have spoken out against the police action after videos of the wrestlers being dragged, pushed and roughed up were shared widely.
According to The Indian Express, about 700 wrestlers were detained by the Delhi Police.
While the wrestlers were being detained and subjected to police action, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh was attending the inauguration of the new parliament building presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The same Delhi Police which has been accused of acting slowly in the two FIRs filed against Singh – including one under the POCSO Act for sexually harassing a minor – was seen acting swiftly to ensure the wrestlers and their supporters were unable to hold their planned ‘Mahila Samman Panchayat’ outside the parliament building.
The cases against the wrestlers, according to NDTV, were filed hours after they were detained on Sunday under charges of rioting, unlawful assembly and obstructing public servants from doing their duty. All the wrestlers who have been participating in the protest – including medallists Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia – have been named in the case.
“It took the Delhi Police seven days to file an FIR against sexual harasser Brij Bhushan, but didn’t even take them seven hours to register an FIR against us for protesting peacefully. Has dictatorship come to this country? The whole world is watching how the government is treating its players,” Malik tweeted in Hindi on Sunday night.
Phogat too tweeted the same message, adding, “A new history is being written.”
For more than a month now, the wrestlers and their supporters have been camping at Jantar Mantar, demanding Singh’s arrest and a fair probe into the allegations against him. On Sunday, while wrestlers and their supporters were being detained, the Delhi Police also dismantled the protest site at Jantar Mantar, removing the protesters’ tents, mattresses, water coolers etc.
“What the wrestlers did was highly irresponsible. We will not allow them to protest now. We had asked them not to move out (from the protest site) but they didn’t listen. More than 8-9 police personnel were left injured. They broke the law and indulged in anti-national activities. We have cleared the area,” Dependra Pathak, Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), said, according to The Indian Express.
Despite their protest site being cleared and their detentions, the wrestlers remain resolute. “After we are released from police custody, we will again start our satyagraha back at Jantar Mantar. Now, there will be satyagraha of women wrestlers… not dictatorship,” Malik tweeted on Sunday evening.