{"id":559997,"date":"2026-08-04T00:58:05","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T19:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/?p=559997"},"modified":"2026-08-04T00:58:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T19:58:05","slug":"court-acquits-former-india-wrestling-chief-of-sexually-harassing-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/court-acquits-former-india-wrestling-chief-of-sexually-harassing-athletes\/","title":{"rendered":"Court acquits former India wrestling chief of sexually harassing athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> NEW DELHI<br \/>\nA court in New Delhi acquitted the former head of the Indian wrestling federation on Monday of charges of sexual harassment and stalking brought by medal-winning athletes, his lawyer said.<br \/>\nBrij Bhushan Sharan Singh, 69, a former lawmaker from Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had been accused by some women wrestlers of groping and demanding sexual favours, allegations that he denied.<br \/>\nThe case triggered weeks of demonstrations in 2023 led by top wrestlers, including world championship winner Vinesh Phogat and Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, who demanded Singh\u2019s removal as the head of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).<br \/>\nSingh\u2019s lawyer, Rajiv Mohan, said on Monday he had been \u201chonourably acquitted\u201d.<br \/>\nThe court reached its verdict after finding \u201cinconsistencies\u201d in witness statements and \u201ccontradiction on major issues\u201d, he told reporters.<br \/>\nSingh\u2019s supporters set off firecrackers and showered him with flower petals while chanting slogans after the ruling.<br \/>\n\u201cI had said that day that I would hang myself if found guilty,\u201d Singh told reporters. \u201cToday, I am walking free after being \u2018honourably acquitted\u2019.\u201d<br \/>\nPhogat said they would appeal against the judgement to a higher court and \u201ccontinue their fight\u201d against Singh. \u201cIt took a great deal of courage for us to take to the streets and get a [complaint] registered against a powerful leader of the ruling party,\u201d she said on X. Delhi police charged Singh in 2023 with sexually harassing and stalking women wrestlers after months of mounting pressure from protesting athletes.<br \/>\nThe demonstrations drew widespread public attention, with leading wrestlers camping at a protest site in Delhi and accusing authorities of failing to act on their complaints. Wrestling is hugely popular in rural northern India and images of Phogat and other athletes being detained as they tried to march to parliament during the protest went viral on social media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW DELHI A court in New Delhi acquitted the former head of the Indian wrestling federation on Monday of charges of sexual harassment and stalking brought by medal-winning athletes, his lawyer said. Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, 69, a former lawmaker from Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had been accused by some [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560009,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-559997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Court acquits former India wrestling chief of sexually harassing athletes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/leadpakistan.com.pk\/news\/court-acquits-former-india-wrestling-chief-of-sexually-harassing-athletes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Court acquits former India wrestling chief of sexually harassing athletes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"NEW DELHI A court in New Delhi acquitted the former head of the Indian wrestling federation on Monday of charges of sexual harassment and stalking brought by medal-winning athletes, his lawyer said. 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