The Sports Ministry will announce the names of the members of the monitoring committee on Sunday.
The Sports Ministry will on Sunday announce the names of the members of the monitoring committee probing the allegations of sexual harassment and corruption against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Ministry sources gave this information. This was confirmed by sources after a meeting on the matter between Sports Minister Anurag Thakur, Sports Secretary Sujata Chaturvedi and SAI (Sports Authority of India) DG (Director) Sandeep Pradhan on Saturday.
Earlier, the standoff between the WFI and the protesting wrestlers for the past few days ended for the time being as the players called off their strike late on Friday after getting assurance from the government. After a marathon meeting with officials, Thakur said the government has decided to set up a monitoring committee to look into the allegations leveled by some of the country’s top wrestlers, including Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Ravi Dahiya.
The names of the committee members were earlier to be revealed on Saturday. The source told ‘PTI-Bhasha’, “The Sports Ministry will announce the names of the three-member monitoring/investigation panel on Sunday.” According to ministry sources, Thakur, Chaturvedi and Pradhan had a two-hour long meeting. The committee will also oversee the day-to-day affairs of the federation. The WFI has earlier rejected all allegations, including sexual harassment, against its president Singh, saying there is “no room for dictatorship and mismanagement” in the sports body.
The WFI, in its reply to the government’s notice, denied all the allegations. He alleged that the allegation was ‘motivated, biased, baseless and false’. Following the allegations made by the wrestlers, the Sports Ministry had sought a response from the WFI within 72 hours. During this time the wrestlers had approached the Indian Olympic Committee (IOA) and requested for an inquiry. Considering their demands, the IOA constituted a seven-member inquiry committee under the chairmanship of MC Mary Kom.
The IOA panel also includes wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt, archer Dola Banerjee and Indian Weightlifting Federation president and IOA treasurer Sahdev Yadav. Two lawyers Talish Ray and Shlok Chandra are also included in this committee. Apart from this, former badminton player and IOA joint secretary Alaknanda Ashok is also a part of the committee. He has been made the vice-chairman of the committee. The decision was taken during the Emergency Executive Council meeting of the IOA, which was attended by Olympic champion shooter Abhinav Bindra, Olympic bronze medalist Yogeshwar, IOA President PT Usha and Joint Secretary Kalyan Choubey.
