The WFI was contacted by the sports ministry to halt the current Ranking Tournament at Gonda, Uttar Pradesh. The ministry has instructed the federation to reimburse the participants for the admission money they paid for the ongoing competition.
Digital Desk: The assistant secretary of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), Vinod Tomar, was suspended on Saturday by the Union sports ministry in response to the protest staged by India's renowned wrestlers against the WFI president. Vinod Tomar claimed he was unaware of any such development after being suspended.
The decision is rumoured to have been made during yesterday's meeting between the wrestlers and the sports ministry. Tomar managed the WFI's day-to-day operations while collaborating closely with Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the organization's president.
The WFI was contacted by the sports ministry to halt the current Ranking Tournament at Gonda, Uttar Pradesh. The ministry has instructed the federation to reimburse the participants for the admission money they paid for the ongoing competition.
On January 18, a number of wrestlers organised a protest against the WFI, including Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, and others. Brij Bhushan Sharan allegedly harassed female wrestlers, according to 28-year-old Phogat.
As a result of the treatment she received from the WFI president, an MP for the Uttar Pradesh chapter of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Vinesh also said that she had considered suicide. But Brij Bushan Sharan Singh refuted all of the accusations, threatening to kill himself if any of the wrestlers came forward to support Vinesh's claims.
On Saturday, the WFI vehemently refuted all claims, including those of sexual harassment, made against its president, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, asserting that "there is no place for arbitraryness and mismanagement" within the sports organisation. The sexual harassment claims were dismissed by the federation as "malicious and unsubstantiated," and they were not accepted.
After being assured by the government that their complaints against the President of the Wrestling Federation of India and other management members will be taken care of, the disgruntled Indian wrestlers ended their protest late on Friday night, January 20.
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