NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Thursday said it would hear arguments from August 9 against outgoing Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in connection with the sexual harassment case filed by a group of women wrestlers.
"...matter is kept for arguments on charge on 09.08.2023, 10.08.2023 and 11.08.2023 at 11:00 AM," additional chief metropolitan magistrate Harjeet Singh Jaspal said.
During the course of the hearing, advocate Rajeev Mohan, on behalf of Singh, submitted that verification of documents supplied by the Delhi police, including the charge sheet, is complete.
An application had also been moved in the court by Singh's counsel seeking a 'better picture/better copy' of certain "photographs/documents" but later he agreed to take the soft copies from the investigating officer. Accordingly, the application was disposed of.
During the proceedings, Singh and co-accused and suspended WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar appeared before the court.
In Singh's case, the court had earlier taken cognisance of the offences committed under Sections 354 (outraging modesty), 354A (sexually coloured remarks) and 354D (stalking), 506 (para 1) (criminal intimidation) and 109 (abetment to offense) of the Indian Penal Code while initiating further proceedings as per the law.
The sexual harassment case against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a six-time MP, was moved by a group of women wrestlers followed by massive protests backed by the country's top wrestlers including Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia.
On July 28, the court had allowed exemption to the BJP politician from personal appearance for the day after his lawyer submitted he was unable to appear before the court as he was busy discharging his responsibilities as an MP.
Prior to that, the court also had granted regular bail to Singh and Tomar on a bond of Rs 25,000 each with certain conditions, including they shall not leave the country without the court's prior permission and not offer any inducement to witnesses.