New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear a plea by seven protesting women wrestlers seeking permission to file an affidavit in sealed cover over the allegations of sexual harassment against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. The wrestlers had on Wednesday moved a plea seeking to file an affidavit in a sealed cover.
The counsel representing the women wrestlers mentioned the matter before a bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice P S Narasimha and said he was seeking permission to file the affidavit in sealed cover before the court, which is slated to hear the matter today. The wrestlers' counsel said the petitioners don't have any problem in supplying the copy of the affidavit to the solicitor general but it should not go in public domain.
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Entertaining the plea, the bench permitted the counsel to bring the sealed cover affidavit on Thursday with advance copy to Mehta. Mehta told the bench that investigation is going on in the case and the petitioners' can share these materials with the investigation officer. The bench also allowed Mehta to share the material with the investigation officer in the case.
The country's top wrestlers have been on a sit-in at Jantar Mantar in Delhi demanding action against Singh. Several national award winning wrestlers have been protesting at Jantar Mantar demanding the government make public the findings of an oversight panel that investigated the sexual harassment allegations against Singh, also a BJP MP.
The fresh plea by the wrestlers in the SC came five days after the Delhi Police filed filed two FIRs against Singh on the allegations of the wrestlers. The FIRs were filed hours after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Delhi Police, told the apex court on Apr. 28 that a case will be registered in the matter. Earlier, on April 26, Delhi Police had told the top court that some kind of preliminary probe was needed before it can proceed with the registration of an FIR over the sexual harassment allegations.
