Olympic medal-winning grapplers Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia on Wednesday alleged that national federation chief Sanjay Singh used devious means to get the suspension on the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) lifted by United World Wrestling (UWW) and threatened to restart their agitation against the body.

The UWW on Tuesday lifted the provisional suspension on India but directed the national federation to provide written guarantees that there would be no discriminatory action against the protesting trio of Punia, Malik and Vinesh Phogat.

The suspension was imposed by UWW in August last year after the WFI failed to hold elections in time.

Punia, Malik and Phogat have been protesting for more than a year, demanding the arrest of former WFI chief Brijbhushan Sharan Singh for allegedly sexually harassing women grapplers.

“We came to know yesterday (Tuesday) that Sanjay Singh had done some setting with UWW to get the suspension lifted. Brijbhushan and Sanjay Singh have left no stone unturned to show that they are above the law,” said Sakshi in a video posted on ‘X’.

Sakshi stressed that if the BJP MP’s loyalists are allowed to run the affairs of the WFI, the protesting wrestlers will be left with no choice but to restart the agitation.

“Our protest has only been suspended. I might have retired from wrestling but I not will tolerate Brijbhushan or his people running the federation and harassing women,” she asserted.

“In the next 2-4 days, we will contact the people associated with our agitation and chalk out the future course of action. I urge the government (to ensure) that Brijbhushan or his group are barred forever from (running) the federation and some good people are entrusted the task to do the job. Otherwise, we will have to restart the path of protest,” warned Sakshi.

Punia echoed the sentiment in his video message on the same platform.

“Just 2-3 days back, Brijbhushan’s son became the president of the UP wrestling body despite him saying saying no one from his family will come into wrestling administration. The government had promised that Brijbhushan or anyone of his relatives or associates will not govern the sport,” Punia said.