Police in India’s capital Delhi have filed charges including rioting against the country’s top wrestlers after they were detained during a protest.
Olympic medalists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia were among the protesters detained on Sunday as they tried to march on India’s new parliament.
They were released later that night.
Police also cleared their protest site in Delhi, but the wrestlers said they would return there.
“There is no point in going home until we get justice,” Punia told reporters on Sunday night after he was released from detention.
Two-time World Championship medalist Vinesh Phogat and his sister Sangeeta are among the wrestlers detained. They and Ms Malik were released in the evening.
A Delhi police official told the media that if the wrestlers apply for permission to continue their protests, they will be allowed to do so at “an appropriate place other than Jantar Mantar” – The Jantar Mantar a heritage site in Delhi where wrestlers protested. for more than a month.
“All facilities were provided to wrestlers at Jantar Mantar for 38 days, but yesterday they violated the law despite all requests made to them,” said Suman Nalwa, deputy commissioner of Delhi Police.
The wrestlers said they wanted to march peacefully to the new parliament, but were not allowed to do so. “We didn’t riot, we didn’t damage any public property,” said Ms Malik, who is the only Indian woman wrestler who won an Olympic medal.
The wrestlers began protesting on 23 April, demanding the arrest of their federation chief, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, for allegedly sexually harassing female athletes.
Singh, an influential lawmaker and politician from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), denied the allegations and accused the wrestlers of being “politically motivated”.
On Sunday, a scuffle broke out between protesters and police as Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally opened the country’s new parliament building, just a few kilometers away from Jantar Mantar. According to the police, the protesters did not follow their directions and they detained those who tried to break the security barricades.
Footage shows protesters climbing barricades and being led away by authorities.
“They are breaking the law,” Dependra Pathak, Special Commissioner of Delhi Police, told local media.
However, Ms Malik claimed that they “walked in silence” and that the police “dragged and forcibly restrained” the protesters without telling them where they were being taken.
“The whole world is watching how the government treats its players,” tweeted Vinesh Phogat.
On Sunday night, police filed cases against Ms Malik, Mr Punia, the Phogat sisters and “other organizers of the protest”. They were accused of rioting, gathering unlawfully and preventing public servants from performing their duties.
The visuals of the athletes being dragged and taken away in buses went viral, sparking criticism from some top athletes and opposition politicians.
“This makes me sad. There must be a better way to deal with this”, Olympic medalist Neeraj Chopra tweeted in reaction to a video showing police pulling the Phogat sisters away as they sat on the street.
“Why should it come to our wrestlers being dragged around without any consideration? This is not the way to treat anyone. I really hope that this whole situation will be assessed in a way that it should be,” said the Indian football team captain Sunil Chhetri.
Several opposition leaders, including Congress’s Rahul Gandhi and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, criticized the police’s actions.
Wrestlers began protests in January but called it off the same month after India’s sports ministry stripped Mr Singh of his managerial powers for several weeks and the government promised to investigate their complaints.
But wrestlers resumed their protests in April, calling for his arrest.
So far, the police have filed two cases against Mr Singh, including one under India’s Pocso (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences) Act – which deals with sexual offenses against children.
Mr Singh said the law was being abused. He has been interrogated by the police but has not yet been arrested.
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