The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) on Friday moved its office out of the residence of its former president and BJP MP Brijbhushan Sharan Singh, after the sports ministry had recently raised serious objections to it.
“The WFI will operate from a new address in New Delhi after vacating Brijbhushan’s premises,” a source said.
The new WFI office is located in the Hari Nagar area of New Delhi.
The ministry, while suspending the newly-formed WFI panel under president Sanjay Singh on December 24, three days after he was elected its head, had cited the office running from Brijbhushan’s residence as one of the reasons for taking the stringent action.
“The business of the federation is being run from the premises controlled by former office-bearers (Brijbhushan) — which is also the alleged premises wherein sexual harassment of the players have been alleged and present(ly) the court is hearing the matter,” the ministry had said in its letter.
The ministry also said the new body was working under the “complete control of former (WFI) office-bearers”, which was not in conformity with the National Sports Code.
Several top wrestlers, including Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik and World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat, have levelled allegations of sexual harassment against Brijbhushan and the case is being heard in the Delhi High Court.
After Sanjay Singh, a close aide of Brijbhushan, was elected WFI chief on December 21, Sakshi decided to retire from wrestling, while Bajrang returned his Padma Shri and Vinesh decided to give back her Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award, alleging they did not want any close associate of the BJP MP to run the federation.
The IOA has once again instituted a three-member ad-hoc committee under the chairmanship of Wushu Association of India chief Bhupender Singh Bajwa to run the affairs of the sport.
Sanjay, on Thursday, said his “autonomous” and “democratically elected” body could not have been suspended by the government without hearing the WFI’s side of the story. “We have won the elections democratically,” he said.
