Vinesh Phogat:If we are not heard today, tomorrow we will lodge an FIR

Vinesh Phogat, addressing a press conference after the meeting, said that they would make sure the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh resigns, adding that they also want the federation to be dismantled.

Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik told reporters, “We only got assurances from the government at the meeting today and no promise of any sort of concrete action…” “We just want a time-bound assurance. We will wait for that period… We will not move from here (Jantar Mantar) until and unless the entire WFI is dismantled,” she said, adding that molestation does not happen in front of cameras…it happens in closed rooms.

We had met the Home Minister and he had assured us that, ‘you will get justice’,” star wrestler Punia told PTI, adding that the ‘sit-in’ was their another attempt to highlight the prevailing issues in Indian wrestling.

Phogat said, “If the Indian medallists are saying something, we should not be looked at like suspects…I challenge the (WFI) president to come and sit with me…I will speak to him and will take him down.”

“If we are not heard today, tomorrow we will lodge an FIR. If girls like us are treated in this way, then I would like to say that no woman is safe and no woman should be born in India,” Phogat added

Punia said that their fight wasn’t against the government. “We are sitting here to safeguard the future of children who are sitting here in protest

The sports ministry had on Wednesday sought an explanation from the Wrestling Federation of India after Olympic wrestlers, including Phogat, Sakshi Malik, Anshu Malik and Punia, protested against the functioning of the WFI. The ministry said it has taken a ‘very serious view of the matter’ since it concerns the well-being of the athletes.

In a startling revelation, a crying Phogat alleged that WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has been sexually exploiting women wrestlers for many years, a charge vehemently rejected by the sports administrator and BJP MP.

Vinesh, who has been at loggerheads with WFI since the Tokyo Olympic Games, also claimed that several coaches at the national camp in Lucknow have also exploited women wrestlers, adding there are a few women at the camp who approached the wrestlers at the behest of the WFI president.