Meanwhile, the United World Wrestling shifted the Asian Wrestling Championship out of India.
The Sports Ministry on Thursday extended the term of MC Mary Kom led-oversight committee that is looking into the sexual harassment allegations leveled by some of India’s top wrestlers against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, its officials and coaches
“MYAS has extended the term of the Oversight Committee for wrestling by two weeks for submission of the report pertaining to the complaint filed by a group of wrestlers against the Wrestling Federation of India. The extension has been granted on request from the Oversight Committee,” the ministry said in a statement.
It also means that the oversight committee will continue to run the WFI administration till the time the enquiry is completed.
“The extension also applies to other functions assigned to the committee which includes day-to-day administration of WFI, during the course of the inquiry,” said the statement.
The committee was formed on January 23 with five members. Besides Mary Kom, it included Olympic bronze medallist Yogeshwar Dutt, former shuttler Trupti Murgunde and former SAI administrators Radhica Sreeman and Rajesh Rajagopalan. However, Babita Phogat was added as a sixth member of the panel a week later as the protesting wrestlers said they were not consulted by the ministry.
It is learnt that the panel has had several rounds of meeting with the protesting wrestlers, national coaches and WFI officials. The panel has also cleared the team for the second ranking series tournament in Egypt that started on Thursday. Olympic medallists Bajrang Punia, Ravi Dahiya, world championships medallist Vinesh Phogat, Deepak Punia among others opted out of tournament, having also skipped the ranking series in Zagreb.
Asian wrestling moved out of Delhi
Meanwhile, the United World Wrestling has shifted the Asian Wrestling Championship out of India. The event will be now held in Astana, Kazakhstan.
UWW took the decision after talking to the oversight committee. It was learnt that UWW felt that the enviornment in India is not conducive to holding a tournament of such stature. The tournament was originally scheduled to be held in New Delhi, from March 28 to April 2.
“It will now take place in Astana, Kazakhstan between April 7-15 with final dates to be confirmed,” UWW said in a statement.
UWW said it was forced to change the host of the continental championships due to the “recent developments in Indian wrestling and a pending inquiry by the Indian sports ministry against the Wrestling Federation of India.”
