After the Sports Ministry ordered it to stop all activities due to various allegations against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), the emergency general council meeting was postponed here for Sunday.
Saturday’s statement by the ministry stated that it had asked the WFI for a suspension of “all ongoing activities with immediate impact”, including the Ranking Tournament at Gonda (UP), the stronghold of Brij Bhushan Sharman Singh, the federation president.
Sharan was accused of harassing female wrestlers and acting like a dictator by some top wrestlers in the country, including Vinesh Pogat, Bajrang Puia, Sakshi Makia and Ravi Dahiya.
Vinod Tomar was also removed as WFI’s assistant secretary by the ministry in the wake of allegations made by the grapplers of sexual harassment and corruption of the chief of the body.
It decided to suspend Tomar “with immediate effect to ensure proper functioning and operation of WFI”.
Prateek, Sharan’s child, said Friday that his father would make a statement regarding the allegations against him following the meeting of the sports body.
Although Sharan was told by the ministry to avoid the WFI’s day-to-day operations, he was there for the Nandini Nagar wrestling event on Saturday.
Anurag Thakur, the Sports Minister, announced Friday that a committee would be formed to investigate the allegations against Sharan and his body.
On Sunday, the ministry will announce the names of its members of its oversight panel.
The ministry released a statement on Saturday saying it had “communicated to the Wrestling Federation of India that, in light of the Government’s decision, an Oversight Committee was established to investigate various allegations made by athletes against the Federation. WFI will suspend all current activities until the Oversight Committee has been formally appointed and takes control of the day-to-day functioning of WFI.”