New Delhi: Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court has reserved its decision on framing charges against former Indian Wrestling Association president and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in the case of sexual exploitation of female wrestlers. Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Priyanka Rajput ordered the verdict to be pronounced on April 26.
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh reached the court during the hearing on Thursday. On behalf of Brij Bhushan, it was said that he was not in India on the day of the incident on 7 September 2022. Brij Bhushan demanded an order from Delhi Police to investigate the facts in this regard. The court reserved its decision on this application.
On February 27, Delhi Police had said it could have filed six separate FIRs against the accused but this would have delayed the trial. Opposing this, Brij Bhushan Bhushan Sharan Singh's lawyer had said that if there is no continuity in the allegations then an FIR cannot be registered on different charges. A demand was made on behalf of Brijbhushan Sharan Singh to acquit him of charges in this case. It was said on behalf of Brij Bhushan that there was a lot of delay in reporting the crime. He further said that there were many “contradictions in the statements of the complainant”. Brijbhushan Sharan Singh further claimed that the court does not have jurisdiction over the incident that happened abroad.
Earlier, on January 23, questions were raised by the women wrestlers on the formation of the Oversight Committee and its investigation. Senior advocate Rebecca John, appearing for the women wrestlers, had said that the Oversight Committee was not constituted in accordance with the provisions of the Protection of Women from Sexual Harassment Act (POSH). She had said that the Oversight Committee is not an internal grievance redressal committee and the report of the Oversight Committee cannot be trusted. The lawyer said that there was sufficient basis to frame charges against the accused in the case.
John had said that only a woman can test the breath of a female wrestler and not a man. She said that female wrestlers were molested during the wrestling competition in Mongolia. She said that in April 2016, the accused touched the victim's chest and moved his hand to her stomach in the dining hall of a hotel in Mongolia, while he hugged them in Jakarta in August 2018 after winning the gold medal. In 2019, the victim was molested in Kazakhstan on the pretext of testing her breathing, the lawyer said. John had said that in February 2022, a female wrestler was molested in Bulgaria on the pretext of checking her breathing.
During a court hearing on January 6 this year, the Delhi Police had said that the court has jurisdiction over this case. Earlier, Delhi Police had accused Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of threatening the women wrestlers and asking them to keep their mouths shut. Citing the statement of a male wrestler, Delhi Police had said that only women were allowed to enter the office of co-accused Vinod Tomar in this case.
Delhi Police had said that Section 188 of the Code of Criminal Procedure would apply only when the entire crime was committed outside India while the offense in this case has also been committed within the jurisdiction of this court. Delhi Police had said that on the basis of similarity of motive in the crime, the argument that the offense is not a continuous offense cannot be accepted, so far as the period of punishment is concerned, for an offense punishable with a punishment of more than three years.
The court had granted bail to Brijbhushan Sharan Singh and co-accused Vinod Tomar on July 20, 2023. On July 7, 2023, the court had taken cognizance of the charge sheet filed by Delhi Police. On June 15, 2023, Delhi Police had filed a charge sheet in Rouse Avenue Court. In the charge sheet, charges have been framed under sections 354, 354D, 354A and 506 (1) of the Indian Penal Code. Delhi Police has filed a charge sheet in the Rouse Avenue Court against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in the case of sexual harassment leveled by six adult female wrestlers.
