Hyderabad: Telangana IT minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) working president KT Rama Rao on Monday slammed the Center after protesting wrestlers were manhandled by the Delhi Police and detained at Jantar Mantar.
Several wrestlers have been staging a sit-in protest demanding the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, accusing him of sexually harassing several female wrestlers.
Condemning the way the wrestlers were treated, the minister took to Twitter stating, “Can any responsible leader from govt of India tell us why it has to be this way?”
“These are champions who brought us glory on the world stage! They deserve our support and respect,” added KTR.
Less than two kilometres away from the grand inauguration of the country’s new Parliament, chaos unfolded in the heart of the capital on Sunday as top wrestlers, including Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, and Bajrang Punia, were detained by Delhi Police while attempting to march towards the new Parliament building, following which an FIR against them was booked for “rioting” and other charges.
The athletes had planned a ‘Mahila Samman Mahapanchayat’ (women’s assembly) as part of their ongoing protest.
However, they were harshly manhandled by the police and pushed into buses after which the opposition parties including Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and Trinamool Congress condemned the police action.
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