A day after evicting protesting wrestlers from Delhi's Jantar Mantar area, the police on Monday said if the wrestlers apply for permission to stage a sit-in protest again, they will be allowed “at any of suitable, notified places” other than the same place.
Notably, the Delhi police late on Sunday registered a first information report (FIR) against the organisers of the wrestlers’ protest and the protesters themselves, including Vinesh Phogat, Sakshee Malikkh, Bajrang Punia, for rioting and obstructing public servants on duty.
The sections mentioned in the FIR include IPC 147 (rioting), 149 (unlawful assembly), 186 (obstructing public servant in duty), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty), 353 (assault to deter public servant from discharge of his duty, and section 3 of the PDPP Act.
The action by the police came after the wrestlers were detained as they led a "Mahila Samman Mahapanchayat" ("Women’s Meet"), intending to march toward India's new parliament building on its inauguration day.
According to the Delhi police, 700 people were detained across the national capital, including 109 protesters. However, the wrestlers were released at late night.
Commenting on the events, wrestler Punia said in a tweet in Hindi: “The police continue to keep me in detention. They have not told us anything. Have I committed a crime? Brij Bhushan should have been arrested. But why are we being kept in captivity?”
“It is unfortunate that a person accused of sexual harassment attended the inauguration of the new Parliament building…It took Delhi Police only a few hours to register an FIR against us but it took them 7 days to register an FIR against Brij Bhushan Singh,” Punia told mediapersons after being released.
He further stated that going home is not an option and that he would decide what needs to be done next after meeting the wrestlers.
The wrestlers, flanked by villagers, have been staging a protest at Jantar Mantar since April, demanding the sacking of Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh over sexual harassment allegations.