The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought the city police's response to a petition by former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Singh, seeking quashing of the FIR and charges framed against him in a sexual harassment case lodged by several women wrestlers.

Justice Manoj Kumar Ohri also issued a notice on the plea to the complainant grapplers and listed the matter for further hearing on January 13.

"Let status report/reply be filed," the judge said.

Singh, who is also a former MP of the BJP, was last year accused of sexual assault by several female wrestlers who sat on a protest for weeks demanding a probe against him.

The Delhi Police filed an FIR against him after the intervention of the Supreme Court in May 2023.

After a trial court framed charges of sexual harassment, intimidation and outraging the modesty of women against the former lawmaker on May 21, Singh approached the high court last month claiming that he has been falsely implicated and no offence as alleged by the prosecution has been committed by him.

On August 29, the high court asked him to file all his contentions in the matter.

Singh, in his plea, has contended that the investigation was done in a biased manner as only the version of the victims, who were interested in taking revenge on him, was considered. He said the charge sheet was filed before the trial court without taking care of the falsehood of allegation.

He is represented by advocate Rajiv Mohan.

The petition has stated that the ongoing proceedings in the trial court pursuant to the FIR are against the natural principles of law and justice as each alleged incident is a "standalone offence" and does not "cumulatively form a continuous sequence of events or a part of a single transaction".

It also said that some allegations even refer to incidents that took place beyond the jurisdiction of India.

Earlier, police submitted in the high court that the petition was not maintainable.

The trial court has also framed the charge of criminal intimidation against co-accused and former WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar in the case. He has challenged the charges and the FIR in this petition.

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