India’s Tokyo Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia has returned his Padma Shri award amid protests in opposition to the election of Sanjay Singh, a close-aid of outgoing chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, as the brand new Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief. Punia’s assertion got here a day after Sakshi Malik determined to give up the game citing Sanjay Singh’s election because the WFI chief.
In an in depth assertion, Punia wrote, “Dear Prime Minister hope you are doing properly. You should be busy in working for the nation however amid all this, I need to draw your consideration to the wrestlers of the nation. You should be conscious that the ladies wrestlers of the nation began a protest in January this yr in opposition to Brish Bhushan Singh accusing him of sexual harassment. I too joined their protest. The protest stopped after the federal government promised sturdy motion.
“But there was no FIR against Brij Bhushan even after three months and we again took to the streets in April so that the police would at least file an FIR against him. But that didn’t happen so we had to move court to get an FIR registered. There were 19 complainants in January but the number came down to 7 by April. This means Brij Bhushan exerted his influence on 12 women wrestlers,” Bajrang Punia additional added.
Punia added that their protest went on for 40 days and yet another feminine wrestler backed out. “We were pressurised a lot. Our protest site was demolished, we were kicked out of Delhi and were barred from protesting. We were clueless as to what to do now, hence we resorted to immersing our medals in the Ganga river,” Punia stated.
“We fought from our heart but if a man like Brij Bhushan, his business partner and a close aide is elected as the president of WFI, I give up wrestling. From today onwards you will not see me on the mat,”
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