How Oversight Committee ignored wrestlers’ prices in opposition to Brij Bhushan

WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh faces severe prices of sexual harassment. PTI file photograph

One of many sexual harassment allegations in opposition to Wrestling Federation of India president and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh is that he touched the “abdomen and chest 3-4 occasions” of a feminine wrestler to verify her respiratory patterns.

The WFI chief, nonetheless, whereas deposing in entrance of the federal government of India’s appointed Oversight Committee in February this 12 months talked about yoga as a motive for checking respiratory patterns, mentioned a report in Indian Express. Singh additionally cited Hindu scriptures to justify his choice of getting separate coaching camps for female and male wrestlers.

One of many feminine wrestlers whereas talking in entrance of the committee had mentioned that Brij Bhushan touched her “abdomen and chest 3-4 occasions and continued to touch upon her respiratory sample”.

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The WFI head whereas denying the allegations mentioned that he had touched his personal abdomen to indicate the right means of respiratory.

Singh recalled that in a event the complainant was taking fallacious selections throughout a bout.

“So we mentioned her respiratory sample is reverse. Madam, I’ve been a sufferer of this. For round 20 years, I couldn’t sleep correctly. An incident had taken place, my son died by suicide, and I discovered refuge in yoga. I used to be informed that since my respiratory sample is reverse, I’m unable to sleep,” Brij Bhushan informed the committee.

After the wrestler and a coach requested him what precisely is reverse respiratory sample.

“So I positioned my hand on my abdomen and confirmed them that after we breathe in, the abdomen ought to broaden, and contract after we breathe out. Everybody checked their respiratory at that second. When the complainant [name withheld] got here, I informed her, ‘beta, you need to be a part of yoga as nicely.’”

The WFI chief additionally requested the physiotherapist if she massaged the wrestler’s palms.

“She mentioned no. So, I requested the complainant if she checks her respiratory whereas sleeping. Nevertheless, she laughed. So I got here out and mentioned it’s powerful for her to win a medal as a result of she isn’t severe,” Singh informed the panel.

SAI camp in Lucknow

In the course of the listening to, Paramjeet Malik, a former physiotherapist who was on the camp in Lucknow in 2014, informed the committee that ‘junior wrestlers’ had been taken out of the camp at evening.

Malik added that she was faraway from the camp after she knowledgeable the chief coach about it.

Brij Bhushan mentioned that it was not his choice to carry the ladies’s nationwide camp on the Sports activities Authority of India’s campus in Lucknow.

“I didn’t inform the authorities to carry the camp in Lucknow. I informed them which have it on a separate campus or else it should affect their coaching. Even the mother and father of the wrestlers informed me to separate the 2 camps,” Singh mentioned.

On being requested about it additional, Singh mentioned: “This doesn’t occur outdoors. Jawan bhai behan ek sath kyun nahi sote? Ye mahila college, Mahila faculty kyun hai? … Hamare shastro mein kaha gaya hai bhai behan ek sath ekant me na rahe. Ab hum logon ne keh rakha hai toh ispe bahut badi debate ho jayegi (Why don’t brothers and sisters sleep collectively? Why do we’ve girls’s universities, girls’s schools? Our scriptures say that brothers and sisters shouldn’t keep alone collectively. Now that we’ve mentioned this, it has triggered a debate.).”

The media report additionally raises questions on the function of the Oversight Committee which was established in January this 12 months after India’s high wrestlers started their first agitation in opposition to the WFI head.

The six-member committee consisted of Mary Kom, Yogeshwar Dutt, Trupti Murgunde, Radhica Sreeman, Rajesh Rajgopalan, and Babita Phogat.

The complainants made the identical allegations in from of the committee which has now led to a chargesheet wherein the Delhi Police has mentioned that Brij Bhushan is “liable to be prosecuted and punished for offences” of sexual harassment, molestation and stalking.

The chargesheet was filed after an investigation of complaints by six feminine wrestlers. It has discovered a case of “repeated and persevering with” harassment from the WFI chief, invoking Sections 506 (felony intimidation), 354 (outraging modesty of a girl); 354 A (sexual harassment); and 354 D (stalking).

In two instances, Singh has been booked underneath Sections 354, 354A and 354D, whereas 4 of six instances are underneath Sections 354 and 354A — which carry a jail time period of as much as 5 years.