Wrestlers’ protest: FIR against protesting wrestlers on charges of ‘rioting’

Security personnel detain wrestler Vinesh Phogat during wrestlers’ protest march towards new Parliament building, in New Delhi. PTI

The Delhi Police on Sunday registered an FIR against the organisers of the wrester’s protest including Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia and Asian champion Vinesh Phogat. The organisers and their supporters have been booked under charges of rioting and obstructing public servant in discharge of duty.

The FIR was registered after a violent scuffle broke out between the wrestlers and Delhi Police as the athletes tried to approach the new Parliament building for a ‘Mahila Samman Mahapanchayat’.

Sakshi, Bajrang, Vinesh and her sister Sangeeta were detained after the scuffle. They have now been released from detention.

“A case has been registered against wrestlers Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and other organisers of the protest. A few wrestlers had come to Jantar Mantar at night to protest, they were denied permission and were sent back,” Delhi Police was quoted as saying by India Today.

The police claimed that 700 people in total were detained including 109 protesters at Jantar Mantar.

The protesters had planned a march from their protest site in Jantar Mantar to the new Parliament building to register their demands. However, the police have claimed that protestors tried to break security barricades and did not follow their directions.

Later, the police also cleared the protest site by removing the tents.

The wrestlers have been protesting against the Wrestling Federation of India’s (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh at Jantar Mantar since 23 April. They are demanding the arrest of Brij Bhushan for allegedly sexually harassing female wrestlers.

Vinesh Phogat has reacted sharply to the FIR against them, saying that “new history is being written”.

“Delhi Police takes seven days to file an FIR against Brij Bhushan for sexual harassment but did not take even seven hours to file an FIR against us for carrying out a peaceful protest. Has the country slipped into a dictatorship? The entire world is watching how the government is treating its players. A new history is being written,” Vinesh Phogat tweeted.

As per news agency PTI, the FIR has been registered under sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions), 353 (assault or use of criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

Sections 352 (assault or criminal force otherwise than on grave provocation), 147 (rioting) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the IPC have also been invoked.

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