CHENNAI: For wrestling the year ended on a sad note. Days after Vinesh Phogat announced that she has decided to return the Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award, she left the two trophies in the middle of Kartavya Path on Saturday.
The multiple world championships medallist, like Bajrang Punia, was marching to the Prime Minister’s office to hand over the awards but she was stopped by the Delhi Police. As a mark of protest, she left the awards at the Kartavya Path and they were later picked up by Delhi Police.
Vinesh on Tuesday said she felt these awards were meaningless when wrestlers of the country are struggling to get justice.
On X, she had posted a long letter addressed to the Prime Minister and said that she was returning the awards so that they do not become a burden on her from leading her life with dignity.
Vinesh along with Olympic medallists Bajrang and Sakshi Malik (Rio Olympics) have been protesting against former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh since January. He has been accused of sexual harassment by the three well-known grapplers.
Bajrang returned his Padma Shri a day after Sakshi quit wrestling in protest after Brij Bhushan’s loyalist Sanjay Singh was elected WFI chief. However, the Sports Ministry had later suspended the newly-elected panel for not following the provisions of its own constitution while taking decisions while asking the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to constitute an ad-hoc panel to manage the affairs of the sports body.
Acting on the sports ministry directive, the IOA on Wednesday constituted a three-member ad hoc committee to run the day-to-day affairs of the WFI.
(With PTI inputs)