Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh<\/a> who is facing charges of sexual harassment by seven female wrestlers, including a minor, the protesting group of Olympian grapplers, led by Bajrang Punia, Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik, spent Monday criss-crossing Haryana villages to plan their future course of action in consultations with khap leaders, kisan unions and society elders.<\/p>\nUnfazed by the high-handedness of the Delhi police on Sunday, Bajrang and Vinesh held a series of meetings with khap leaders and their village elders at a farm house in Gurugram. The meeting was attended by the wrestlers\u2019 team of lawyers as well to discuss the legal recourse in the wake of an FIR being registered against the \u2018organisers\u2019 of the proposed women\u2019s mahapanchayat, TOI has learnt.
The police have booked the organisers (read wrestlers) of the women\u2019s mahapanchayat under different sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and section 3 of the PDPP Act. While all are bailable offences, the legal team of the wrestlers fears coercive and motivated action by the police, which has resulted in wrestlers leaving the national capital.<\/p>\n
The supporters of the wrestlers fanned out to different parts of Haryana and districts and towns bordering Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Haryana to hold discussions. After the wrestlers and their supporters were detained and later released by the Delhi police on Sunday evening, they assembled at Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi\u2019s apartment near Connaught Place in the night to ponder over the police\u2019s misbehaviour with female wrestlers. The police action, the wrestlers alleged, resulted in bruised arms and minor injuries to Malik, Vinesh and her cousin Sangeeta Phogat.
While Sakshi stayed put at her Delhi residence, Bajrang, Vinesh, Sangeeta, Jitendra Kinha and others left for Haryana in the morning to hold meetings. Later, Bajrang visited his ancestral home in Khudan village of Jhajjar district. It\u2019s been learnt that Delhi police has been keeping a close vigil on the wrestlers’ next move.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the Jantar Mantar site wore a deserted look with only a group of women from Manipur protesting there. The police have imposed Section 144 (prohibit the assembly of four or more people in an area) at the site. It\u2019s been learnt that the police have clearly told the wrestlers that they can\u2019t return to Jantar Mantar.
The wrestlers originally did not have the permission to protest when they had started their second round of agitation on April 23, but the police allowed them to continue with their protest. This time, the police have told the wrestlers to continue their agitation at the Ramlila Ground, but only after obtaining proper permission from them.
The wrestlers had called for a women\u2019s mahapanchayat at the new Parliament building at a time when it was being inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leading to a scuffle between the protestors and police.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took Delhi Police seven days to register an FIR against Brij Bhushan who sexually assaulted girls and it didn\u2019t even take seven hours to register an FIR against us for peacefully protesting. Has dictatorship started in this country? The whole world is watching how the government is treating its players,\u201d Sakshi wrote on her twitter account.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n