 "Khap mahapanchayat demands arrest of WFI chief, gives govt time till June 9")
A mahapanchayat here on Friday threatened to step up the agitation for the arrest of BJP MP and Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, and bring the protesting wrestlers again to Delhi's Jantar Mantar, if the government doesn't act within a week.
Bhartiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait invoked the 2020-21 farmers' protest that forced the Centre to repeal three laws, and said farmers will take these children to Delhi's Jantar Mantar on June 9.
This is the site where the Delhi Police said the wrestlers will not be allowed again to protest, after the confrontation last Sunday when demonstrators tried to march from there to the new Parliament building.
The BKU leader also announced a big panchayat at Shamli in Uttar Pradesh on June 11 if Singh, accused of sexually harassing female wrestlers, is not arrested, and more meetings from June 15 to 18 in Haridwar.
If nothing happens even then, panchayats will continue across the country, he said.
Referring to the farmers' agitation against the now repealed laws, he said, Now too we will hold panchayats across the country -- like we did at that time. The entire country is with the wrestlers on this issue.
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Hours before the khap mahapanchayat, largely represented by farmer outfits, Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur said everyone wants justice for the wrestlers, but only after the due process of law.
As details from the two FIRs registered against the outgoing WFI chief surfaced, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed the Centre over its inaction.
Members of the 1983 World Cup winning cricket team too came out in support of the wrestlers.
The BJP MP, meanwhile, postponed his own show of strength in Ayodhya, after the local administration refused permission to hold a rally there on June 5.
Thakur said the government favours an unbiased investigation.
All of us want justice to be delivered, but it will happen after following the due process," the minister said during an interactive session at the India Economic Conclave organised by the Times Network.
He said the Delhi Police is investigating the case, which was filed after a government-appointed committee submitted a report on the allegations against Singh.
"There is no question of bias," Thakur said to suggestions that the delay in action was because Singh is a Lok Sabha member of the ruling party at the Centre.
The minister said the police are expected to file a charge sheet soon. "All of us are in favour of a speedy investigation," he added.
He said the government has agreed to every demand of the wrestlers, set up a panel to probe the charges and asked the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to appoint a committee of administrators to run the affairs of the WFI.
The Congress hit out at the government again.
In a tweet in Hindi, Rahul Gandhi said, "Daughters who brought 25 international medals -- pleading for justice on the streets! MP with 15 heinous allegations of sexual abuse in two FIRs -- safe in prime minister's 'suraksha kavach'!"
Tagging details in the media from the FIRs, Priyanka Gandhi said, "Read these serious allegations and tell the country why no action has been taken against the accused till now?"
The Delhi Police registered two FIRs at Delhi's Connaught Place police station on April 28. One of them was on the basis of a complaint filed by the father of a minor wrestler, invoking the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
The FIRs narrate alleged instances of inappropriate touching, groping, stalking and intimidation by Singh at different times and places over a decade.
The FIRs, registered following a Supreme Court order, charged Singh under various Indian Penal Codes sections, including assaulting a woman to outrage her modesty (section 354), sexual harassment (354A) and stalking (354D).
Representatives of various khaps and farmers' outfits, mainly from Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, attended the mahapanchayat at Kurukshetra's Jat Dharamshala.
The meeting took place a day after a similar event in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar, where farmer leaders decided to meet President Droupadi Murmu on the issue.
Rarmer leaders had persuaded protesting wrestlers from throwing their medals into the Ganga at Hardwar on Tuesday, telling them they would resolve the issue in five days.
Several Olympic and World Championship medal-winning wrestlers, including Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia and Sangeeta Phogat, have been protesting for Singh's arrest.