Wrestlers Protest: Delhi Police File Riot Case After Arrest

Police in the Indian capital Delhi have filed cases including rioting against the country’s top fighters after they were detained during a protest.

Olympic medalists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia were among the protesters. arrested on sunday as they tried to march to India’s new parliament.

They were released later in the evening.

The police also cleaned up the protest site in Delhi, but the fighters said they would return there.

“There is no point in going home until we get justice,” Punia told reporters on Sunday night after being released from detention.

Two-time World Championship medalist Vinesh Phogat and her sister Sangeeta were among the fighters who were detained. They and Ms. Malik were released at night.

A Delhi police officer told the media that if the wrestlers applied for permission to continue their protests, they would be allowed to do so at “an appropriate location other than Jantar Mantar”: Jantar Mantar is a heritage site in Delhi where the wrestlers had been protesting. for more than a month.

“Full facilities were provided to the fighters in Jantar Mantar for 38 days, but yesterday they broke the law despite all the requests made to them,” said Suman Nalwa, deputy commissioner of the Delhi police.

The fighters have said they wanted to peacefully march on the new parliament, but were not allowed to do so. “We didn’t riot, we didn’t damage any public property,” said Malik, who is the only Indian female wrestler to win an Olympic medal.

The fighters began to protest on April 23, demanding arrest the head of his federation, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, for allegedly sexually harassing female athletes.

Singh, an influential lawmaker and politician from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), denied the allegations, accusing the fighters of being “politically motivated.”

On Sunday, a fight broke out between protesters and police while Prime Minister Narendra Modi was formal inauguration of the country’s new parliament building, which is located a few kilometers from Jantar Mantar. Police said the protesters did not follow their instructions and detained those who tried to break through the security barricades.

Footage showed protesters scaling barricades and being led away by authorities.

“They broke the law,” Dependra Pathak, Delhi’s special police commissioner, told local media.

However, Ms. Malik claimed that they had been “walking in silence” and that the police “dragged and forcibly detained” the protesters without telling them where they were taking them.

“The whole world is watching how the government treats its players,” Vinesh Phogat tweeted.

On Sunday night, the police cases presented against Ms. Malik, Mr. Punia, the Phogat sisters and “other organizers of the protest”. They have been charged with rioting, unlawful assembly, and obstructing public servants in the line of duty.

Images of the athletes being dragged and taken away on buses went viral, prompting criticism from some top athletes and opposition politicians.

“This makes me sad. There has to be a better way to deal with this,” Olympic medalist Neeraj Chopra tweeted in reaction to a video showing police pulling the Phogat sisters while they sat in the road.

“Why does it have to come down to our fighters being dragged down without any consideration? This is not the way to treat anyone. I really hope this whole situation is assessed as it should be,” Indian football team captain Sunil said. Chhetri. .

Several opposition leaders, including Congress’s Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Prime Minister Arvind Kejriwal, criticized the actions of the police.

The wrestlers began the protests in January but called them off the same month after India’s Sports Ministry stripped Singh of his administrative powers for a few weeks and the government promised to investigate his complaints.

Police have so far brought two cases against Mr. Singh, including one under India’s Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses) Act, which deals with sexual offenses against children.

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