Several junior wrestlers and their families, demanding fair Asian Games trials, carried their protest to the doors of IOA on Thursday and vowed not to leave the headquarters of the apex sports body till the exemption given to Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat is withdrawn.

The inexplicable delay by the IOA ad-hoc panel in announcing the selection criteria and the subsequent exemption granted to Bajrang and Vinesh had infuriated the wrestling fraternity which termed the decision as unjust and unfair.

Around a 100 people gathered outside the Olympic Bhawan and urged IOA secretary general Kalyan Chaubey to ensure a fair trial.

The IOA official after a round of meeting with his colleagues met the protesters and assured them support.

The reigning U-20 world champion Antim Panghal and U-23 Asian champion Sujeet Kalkal had slammed the ad-hoc committee’s decision as unjust and unfair.

“Chaubey told us that now the matter is in the court, they can’t interfere. He said ‘we are not in a position to make a decision. If the court does not decide in your favour, then IOA will hold a meeting and try to help you’,” Ram Niwas, Panghal’s father, said.

Sakshi’s view

With the exemption move snowballing into a huge controversy, Sakshi Malik, one of the six protesting wrestlers at Jantar Mantar, said that she was never in favour of trial exemptions and the government has actually tried to divide them by unilaterally making the decision.

“The government has attempted to break the unity of the wrestlers by sending direct entries (in two categories). I have never competed without appearing in trials and I do not support it,” she tweeted.

“I am a bit rattled. We had just asked to push the trials date but now the government has put infamy in our laps,” she said.

Later, in a video message on twitter she said, the government had offered her exemption but she refused.