Federal Sports Minister Anurag Thakur has announced that a new Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) vote will be held by 30 June and the probe against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the current WFI chief, will be completed by 15 June.
The announcement came after an almost six-hour-long meeting with the protesting wrestlers who met Thakur at his residence in New Delhi on Wednesday.
After the Sports Minister's assurance, the wrestlers said that they would not conduct any protests until 15 June.
The meeting was held after Thakur had tweeted that the government was willing to hold a discussion with the protesting wrestlers.
Olympic champions Bajrang Punia and Sakshee Mallikh led the delegation of protesting wrestlers.
While talking to the media after the meeting, Thakur said: “I had a long 6-hour discussion with the wrestlers. We have assured wrestlers that the probe will be completed by 15 June and chargesheets will be submitted. The election of WFI will be done by 30 June.”
“An Internal complaint committee of the Wrestling Federation will be constituted, headed by a woman. All FIRs against wrestlers should be taken back. Wrestlers also requested that Brij Bhushan Singh who has completed three terms and his associates should not be re-elected. Wrestlers will not hold any protest before 15 June,” he further stated.
Meanwhile, Punia and Mallikh, when talking to the media after the development, reiterated that the protest is still not over.
“[The] Government has assured us that the police investigation will be completed before 15 June. We have requested that all FIRs against [the] wrestlers should be taken back, and he has agreed to it. If no action is taken by 15 June, we will continue our protest,” Punia told reporters.
The meeting between the grapplers and Thakur came days after the athletes had met Federal Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi.
The wrestlers had called for an impartial probe against Singh, however, Shah told them that the investigation was in progress and that they should let the law take its course.
The athletes have been demonstrating against Singh since January this year.
With that said, a three-day protest in January was called off after Thakur convened an oversight committee to probe the charges of sexual harassment levelled against the WFI chief by the wrestlers.
After a gap of around two and a half months, when no action was taken against Singh, the grapplers again staged a sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi in April.