The female wrestlers, who have accused outgoing WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexual harassment, moved a Delhi court on Monday seeking copy of the charge sheet filed against him.
The city police had filed a charge sheet against Singh, also a BJP MP, under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment), 354-D (stalking) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC on June 15.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Harjeet Singh Jaspal, who is scheduled to take up the charge sheet for consideration tomorrow, directed the lawyer for the complainants to apply for a certified copy at the court’s copying agency.
The charge sheet also named Vinod Tomar, the suspended assistant secretary of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), for offences under sections 109 (abetment of any offence, if the act abetted is committed in consequence, and where no express provision is made for its punishment), 354, 354-A and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.
Besides the present case, another FIR was registered against Singh under the POCSO Act on the basis of allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him by a minor wrestler. She was among the seven female grapplers who had accused Singh of sexual harassment.
Both the FIRs narrate several alleged instances of sexual harassment like inappropriate touching, groping, stalking and intimidation by Singh at different times and places over a decade.
In the minor’s case, the Delhi Police had on June 15 filed a final report seeking cancellation of the FIR. A cancellation report is filed in cases where police fail to find corroborative evidence after due investigation.
In a startling revelation, the father of the minor wrestler had told PTI that he and his daughter had filed a “false” police complaint of sexual harassment against Singh because they wanted to get back at him for perceived injustice against the girl.
Singh has been questioned by the police twice so far, and on both occasions, he denied all the allegations against him and claimed he was being “framed”.
