“Wrestlers Won’t Be Allowed To Protest At Jantar Mantar”: Delhi Police

New Delhi:

A day after filing cases against protesting wrestlers, accusing them of rioting, the Delhi Police today said the protesters yesterday broke the law in a frenzy despite repeated requests, which is why their protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, Delhi’s designated protest site, was stopped. The sit-in protest by the elite grapplers was going on smoothly so far, they said.

“If the wrestlers apply for permission to stage a sit-in again in the future, they will be allowed at any of the suitable, notified places other than Jantar Mantar,” the Deputy Commissioner of Police, New Delhi, tweeted in Hindi.

यदि कुश्ती पहलवान भविष्य में दोबारा धरने प्रदर्शन की अनुमति की अर्जी लगाते हैं, तो उन्हें जंतर मंतर के अलावा अन्य उपयुक्त, सूचित स्थानों में से किसी जगह अनुमति दी जाएगी।

— DCP New Delhi (@DCPNewDelhi) May 29, 2023

Delhi police personnel were seen manhandling Olympians and Commonwealth Games champions in the national capital yesterday during their protest march to the new parliament. Shocked social media users across the country said it was ironic that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was inaugurating the new parliament building, calling it the temple of democracy, barely two km away from where the Delhi police, which is under the Centre’s control, was seen cracking down on India’s top women athletes. 

The wrestlers have been accused of rioting, unlawful assembly and obstructing public servants from doing their duty. All wrestlers participating in the protest, including Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, and Bajrang Punia, have been named in the case.

Videos from the spot showed the champions being shoved, pushed, pinned down to the ground and dragged into buses — triggering outrage across the country. The tension escalated when the wrestlers, led by Vinesh Phogat and her cousin Sangeeta Phogat, attempted to breach the security barricades set up by the police.

Soon after, the Delhi Police cleared the site of their over-month-long sit-in at Jantar Mantar and said they would not be allowed to return there.

The police said 700 people were detained across the national capital. As many as 109 protesters, including the three wrestlers, were detained at Jantar Mantar. Women detainees were released later in the evening.

The athletes had planned a women’s assembly near the new parliament as part of their protest against BJP MP and chief of the country’s wrestling federation Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, accusing him of sexually harassing several women wrestlers, including a minor. They have demanded his removal as the president of the Wrestling Federation of India, and a speedy trial on their police case.

Irate social media users also shared Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s picture from the new parliament inauguration event alongside the wrestlers 

Earlier this month, the ace wrestlers alleged that a group of drunk Delhi Police personnel targeted them when they wanted to bring in mattresses to sleep on a rainy day. The policemen beat them up and abused the women wrestlers, they had said.

Several grapplers were hit on the head and two of them sustained injuries. One person had to be taken to the hospital.