Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 20: Delhi Rouse Avenue court on Thursday granted regular bail to outgoing Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief and BJP Member of the Lok Sabha Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, and his co-accused and former assistant secretary of WFI Vinod Tomar, in connection with the alleged sexual harassment of some female wrestlers.
The court, in its order, directed the accused to furnish bail bonds worth Rs 25,000, and said strict conditions are to be meticulously followed by them. The case will next be heard on July 28.
On July 17, the court had summoned Singh after taking cognizance of a 1,500-page charge-sheet filed by the Delhi Police against him for alleged sexual harassment, assault and stalking. In the month of April, six women wrestlers had filed separate complaints alleging sexual harassment and criminal intimidation against Singh. Singh has denied the allegations.
The Delhi Police charge-sheet against Singh was filed under IPC sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment), 354D (stalking) and 506 (criminal intimidation), whereas Tomar was charged with offences under sections 109 (abetment of any offence, if the act abetted is committed in consequence, and where no express provision is made for its punishment), 354, 354A and 506.
While the Delhi police did not oppose the bail application, the counsel appearing for the complainants, opposed the application, mentioning that the accused was very influential. “Bail should not be granted. If at all it is granted, strict conditions must be imposed. Witnesses have been approached from time to time, no threat though,” the counsel said.
The lawyer said Singh should be told that he can’t approach complainants or witnesses. To this, Rajiv Mohan, the lawyer for the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), replied there will be no threat from Singh.
The women wrestlers had earlier questioned the intent of the government-formed oversight panel, which has been investigating the sexual harassment allegations and alleged that it was biased towards Singh, who is a BJP MP.
Delhi Police in filling the charge-sheet examined 45 people while investigating the accusations of sexual harassment against Singh by a top woman grappler but only four corroborated the charges. According to the charge sheet filed by the Delhi police, the complainant claimed she was sexually harassed thrice abroad and twice in India. All four who corroborated the charges are relatives of the complainant and two were a part of the protest at Jantar Mantar.
The accused is liable to be prosecuted and punished for offences under Sections 354, 354-A (outraging the modesty of a woman) and 354-D (stalking) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the police said. Singh has consistently rejected the allegations and claimed he was being “framed”.
One complaint is about the accused insulting the woman wrestler, while the other is about a show-cause notice served by the WFI. According to the charge sheet, the accused touched the woman “inappropriately and put his hand on her breast and slid it down her stomach on the pretext of checking her breathing” during the 2019 World Championship in Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan.
During the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, the accused “hugged her very tightly and did not let her go for good 15-20 seconds and she had to protect her breast to prevent from groping.” In another incident narrated by the complainant, Singh allegedly molested her during the 2016 World Championship in Mongolia. According to the charge sheet, the woman suffered abuse when she was in the dining area of the hotel and Singh touched her breast and stomach.
One incident is about alleged molestation inside the WFI office on October 16-17, 2017. “The complainant was touched inappropriately on her palm, knee, thighs and shoulders without her consent,” the charge sheet said. It was the WFI that provided technical evidence in the form of photos and videos to establish that the accused and the woman were at the same spot in most places when the alleged incidents took place, it said.
The police found the technical evidence “clearly supports” the allegations levelled by the complainant to the extent of the presence of the accused.
While four witnesses corroborated the alleged misconduct, the Delhi Police said, “In all, seven coaches, two physiotherapists, two masseuses, a psychologist, 11 wrestlers, three referees, who were present or accompanied the women wrestlers during all the various Wrestling Championships were examined. But all of them denied witnessing the alleged incidents.”
The complainant also alleged that the accused insulted her during the Commonwealth Games trials at the Lucknow Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in 2022 by taking her name publicly and saying that he was not angry and would talk to her later.
According to the charge sheet, “The police visited the place, took a pen drive with ‘video recording’ but none of the witnesses supported the version of the woman.” It was Sanjay Saraswat, the Executive Director of SAI Centre, Lucknow, who provided the video of the event.
The charge sheet also mentions the version of the complainant that she presented at the hearing conducted by the oversight committee constituted by the sports ministry to probe the allegations. The Call Detail Records of the relevant people have been obtained but so far nothing concrete has been established after analysing them, the police said.