A Delhi court directed the city police on Thursday to immediately reinstate the security of a female wrestler who has accused former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexual harassment.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Priyanka Rajpoot passed the interim order, noting that the wrestler has to appear before the court on Friday to get her statement recorded in the matter.
The court was hearing applications filed by senior advocate Rebecca John for three wrestlers, claiming that their security was withdrawn on Wednesday night.
The court directed police to file a detailed report by Friday regarding the reasons for the withdrawal of the applicants' security.
"In the meantime, as an interim measure to ensure the safety of the complainant/victim no.4 (as per the list of witnesses), the DCP concerned is directed to make immediate and appropriate arrangements for her security until her deposition is complete and until further orders from this court. Accordingly, let a notice be issued to the DCP concerned with a direction to file a compliance report on the next date," the magistrate said and posted the matter for Friday.
On Thursday evening, top Indian wrestler Vinesh Phogat claimed on X that police have withdrawn the security of the women wrestlers who are set to testify against Singh in court.
"Delhi Police has withdrawn the security of the women wrestlers who are going to testify against Brij Bhushan in the court," Phogat said in a post on the microblogging platform and tagged the Delhi Police as well as the National Commission for Women and the Delhi Commission for Women.
Phogat had reached the Paris Olympics final in her weight category but was disqualified from the Games for being overweight ahead of the gold medal bout.
According to the Supreme Court's directions, security arrangements were made for the complainants after assessing their threat perception, one of the applications said.
"It is also stated that since then, the complainants have been provided with PSOs for their protection. However, the complainants have recently been informed by their PSOs that as per the directions received from higher officials, their security has been withdrawn just one day before the date of hearing before this court, when complainant no.4 is required to appear before the court to testify," it claimed.
The application urged the court to pass necessary directions to ensure the safety and security of the applicants, "so that they may testify without fear or intimidation".
