Wrestling-Five-member panel to run India wrestling body amid harassment allegations


Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia and other Indian wrestlers take part in a protest demanding the disbandment of the WFI and the investigation of its head by the police, who they accuse of sexually harassing female players, at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, India, January 19, 2023. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis/File Photo

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A five-member panel led by boxer MC Mary Kom will manage the daily running of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), which has been hit with sexual harassment allegations, India's sports minister said on Monday.

The country's top wrestlers staged a sit-in protest in the capital New Delhi last week accusing WFI President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and coaches of sexually harassing several female wrestlers.

Singh has denied any wrongdoing but the sports ministry has stripped the WFI top brass of all administrative powers and tasked an oversight committee with running the federation and looking into the allegations.

"The WFI president will stay away from the federation's day-to-day administrative duties and the oversight committee will take over," sports minister Anurag Thakur told reporters.

"Over the next one month, the committee will hear all the parties involved and carry out its own investigation before submitting their report to us."

Apart from Mary Kom, the face of Indian women's boxing, the five-member committee includes Olympic bronze medallist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt and former badminton player Trupti Murgunde.

(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; Editing by Hugh Lawson)

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