NEW DELHI: A court in Delhi issued an order on Thursday, instructing the police to promptly restore the security detail of a woman wrestler who has leveled allegations of
sexual harassment
against
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh
, the former president of the
Wrestling Federation of India
(
WFI
).
The interim order was passed by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Priyanka Rajpoot, who took into account the fact that the wrestler is required to be present in court on Friday to record her statement in connection with the case.
The court was considering applications submitted by senior advocate Rebecca John on behalf of three wrestlers, who alleged that their security had been abruptly removed on Wednesday night.
The court has demanded that the police submit a comprehensive report by Friday, explaining the grounds for withdrawing the security provided to the applicants.
"In the meantime, as an interim measure to ensure the safety of the complainant/victim no.4 (as per the list of witnesses), the DCP concerned is directed to make immediate and appropriate arrangements for her security until her deposition is complete and until further orders from this court. Accordingly, let a notice be issued to the DCP concerned with a direction to file a compliance report on the next date," the magistrate said and posted the matter for Friday, as quoted by PTI.
Top Indian wrestler
Vinesh Phogat
took to social media platform X on Thursday evening to make a startling revelation. According to her post, the police have withdrawn the security detail assigned to the female wrestlers who are scheduled to provide testimony against Singh in court proceedings.
"Delhi Police has withdrawn the security of the women wrestlers who are going to testify against Brij Bhushan in the court," Phogat said in a post on the microblogging platform and tagged the Delhi Police as well as the National Commission for Women and the Delhi Commission for Women.
Vinesh had advanced to the final of her weight category at the Paris Olympics but was disqualified from the Games for being overweight ahead of the gold medal match.
One of the applications stated that, following the Supreme Court's directions, security arrangements were made for the complainants after evaluating their threat perception.
"It is also stated that since then, the complainants have been provided with PSOs for their protection. However, the complainants have recently been informed by their PSOs that as per the directions received from higher officials, their security has been withdrawn just one day before the date of hearing before this court, when complainant no.4 is required to appear before the court to testify," it claimed.
The application urged the court to pass necessary directions to ensure the safety and security of the applicants, "so that they may testify without fear or intimidation".
English (US) ·