New Delhi: Hours after the agitating wrestlers complained about physical harassment and verbal abuses by the police at Jantar Mantar site on Wednesday midnight, Delhi police swung into action asking the grapplers to give a complaint and assured that proper action will be taken after thorough investigation.
Deputy Commissioner of Delhi police Pranav Tayal told the media, "We have told the wrestlers to give a complaint on their grievances, and we will take appropriate action”. The DCP also said that a medical check-up of the policeman, against whom the wrestlers have made allegations, is being conducted.
However, Tayal had earlier said that Bharti came to the protest site with folding beds without permission. On being asked about the beds, his supporters became aggressive and tried to get the beds from a truck. Subsequently, a minor altercation took place following which Bharti, along with two others, was detained, the officer added.
A scuffle broke out between wrestlers staging a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi and police personnel on Wednesday midnight. The altercation resulted in head injuries to a couple of protesters, as reported by the police. Three people, including Somnath Bharti, an AAP MLA, were detained following the incident. In a video that has been circulating on social media platforms, some of the protesters can be heard accusing a police officer of attacking two wrestlers under the influence of alcohol. The accused officer can be seen sitting in the video, while the protesters allege that his colleagues were mute spectators.
Another senior police officer said, "There were a few men who tried bringing cots to the protest site. When the policemen deployed at the spot asked them about the cots, they got aggressive and the protesters joined them. They wrongfully restrained a policeman and accused him of being drunk, which was not the case. Police personnel are at the site and the situation is now under control. No protester was beaten up."
The protesters, including several wrestlers who have won awards at international competitions, have been staging a sit-in at Jantar Mantar, demanding that the government make public the findings of an oversight panel that investigated the sexual harassment charges against Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. The Delhi Police have filed two FIRs against Singh on allegations of sexual harassment levelled against him by seven women wrestlers.
The protesters have made it clear that they will not leave the site until Singh is arrested. They resumed their sit-in last week and demanded that the findings of the panel that probed the allegations be made public. The protesters have been raising slogans and holding placards demanding justice for the alleged victims of sexual harassment and transparency in the investigation process.
