NEW DELHI: A man who worked as a physiotherapist at Sports Authority of India’s (SAI) women wrestling camp in Lucknow way back in 2014 has come forward and claimed that women wrestlers were being sexually harassed even then by the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is also a BJP MP.
“In 2014, Geeta Phogat suffered a knee injury and she underwent surgery. So she had taken me along with her to a women’s wrestling centre in Lucknow for post-surgery therapy for strengthening and mobilisation of her knee. It was at that time the chief coach asked me to help all the women wrestlers there and they appointed me as official physiotherapist,” Paramjeet Malik said while speaking to TNIE.
On April 23, India’s top wrestlers, including Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik and double World Championship medallist Vinesh Phogat resumed their protest at the Jantar Mantar demanding registration of an FIR and punitive action against the WFI chief for allegedly sexually harassing several women wrestlers.
Malik said that when he stayed at the camp in Lucknow for some time, he realised an atmosphere of fear existed among the women wrestlers. “They were being regularly threatened and mentally tortured. They even used to call the parents of the girls and tell them that they are not practising well, just to put pressure on them,” Malik said.
Malik also appeared before the oversight committee set up by the Union Ministry of Sports & Youth Welfare in January this year, to investigate the allegations being made against the WFI chief.
“One Dhiren who was a close aide of Brij Bhushan used to say to the women wrestlers that Hum aapko neta ji (Brij Bhushan) se mila denge, beshak aapko chot lag jaye; he will get you declared as fit. Apart from Dhiren, there were some other girls as well who used to coax female wrestlers and take them to him. I don’t know the particular place where they were taken but I know they used to take these girls to Brij Bhushan’s house,” Malik said.
When asked why he did not report the matter earlier, Malik said, “When I found out that all this is happening, I immediately informed the chief coach and gave a written complaint to a very senior coach named Kamal Sen. I even told everything to a SAI Director, but nothing happened.”
“I even spoke to several women wrestlers and they were very much scared about it. In 2014, I had even invited mediapersons and shared my complaint with them. However, a day after my complaint went public, I was shunted out from the camp along with my wife, who too was a gold-medalist wrestler,” Malik claimed.