Brij Bhushan Harassed Wrestlers ‘At Every Opportunity’, Sufficient Evidence to Frame Charges: Cops to Court – News18

Former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh harassed women wrestlers at every opportunity, Delhi Police told the Rouse Avenue Court on Saturday.

Delhi Police, represented by an additional public prosecutor, Atul Srivastava said that there is sufficient evidence against Bhushan to frame charges in the sexual harassment case.

Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court was hearing arguments in an alleged sexual harassment case filed by six women wrestlers against BJP MLA from UP’s Kaiserganj Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

Srivastava contended that there was an intention on the part of the accused and there are incidents connected to one another, quoted news agency ANI.

In support of the incidents, the additional public prosecutor argued that Bhushan knew what he was doing in Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Bellary and New Delhi. Referring to an incident that happened in Tajikistan, Srivastava said that Singh forcefully hugged a women wrestler and when the complainant protested, Singh termed it “father-like”.

However, advocate Rajiv Mohan, representing Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, earlier submitted that the Court has no jurisdiction to decide on offences which took place outside India.

He continued that they have three types of evidence against Singh– one written and two –recorded statements. These statements are recorded under Sections 161 (examination of witnesses by the police) and 164 (statements recorded by a Magistrate) under the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) informed the additional prosecutor to judge.

Delhi Police in its investigation also included the name of Vinod Tomar as the co-accused who facilitated the activities. Before the suspension, Vinod Tomar was working as an additional WFI secretary and worked closely with Singh apart from looking to the day-to-day affairs of the Federation. Further, Delhi Police informed that all the eye-witnesses in the case has accused Tomar of aiding Brij Bhushan’s acts.

The court will continue to hear the case on October 7.

Who is Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh?

Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh was the President of the Wrestling Federation of India for the last 12 years, getting his third term in 2019. He owns and manages over 50 educational institutions in Uttar Pradesh. Singh also has a considerable political clout, being an MP from Uttar Pradesh for three decades.

He did try his luck with the Samajwadi Party for a while before returning to the BJP fold before the 2014 elections. He won in 2019 with a big margin as well. Singh is the son of the late freedom fighter Chandrabhan Sharan Singh who was also an MLA.

In 1991, he went ahead to win his first election. Soon after, he was booked under TADA but the BJP gave a ticket to his wife who won the election. In 1999, he got the BJP ticket from Balrampur, the area of Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

He took on Mayawati when she was the CM and changed the name of Gonda to “Loknayak Jaiprakash Narayan Nagar” and forced her to make the decision. But in 2009, he fell out with the BJP and joined the Samajwadi Party to again win the Kaiserganj seat.