Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP and former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has suffered a setback from the Delhi High Court. The court has pulled up his petition seeking dismissal of the sexual harassment case filed against him by women wrestlers. Justice Neena Bansal Krishna also questioned Brij Bhushan Singh’s decision to file a single petition challenging the order of framing of charges against him and the entire proceedings. Krishna said, “If the charges have been framed, then everything cannot be dismissed on the basis of merits.”
“There cannot be an omnibus order on everything. If you wanted to quash the order on the allegation, you could have come. This is an indirect way once the trial has begun”, the judge said.
Brij Bhushan Singh’s lawyer argued that there was a hidden agenda behind filing the FIR. He claimed that the complainant wrestlers had a common motive to remove him from his position as WFI president.
The High Court has given two weeks’ time to Brij Bhushan Singh’s lawyer to prepare a short note with all the arguments to dismiss the sexual harassment case. The next hearing will be on September 26.
Let us tell you that Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh has approached the Delhi High Court requesting to quash the FIR and charges against him in the sexual harassment case filed by six female wrestlers. The former MP has argued that the investigation was done in a biased manner as only the statements of the victims were considered. The petition states that false allegations were made against him, which were not considered by the lower court.
The former WFI chief claimed that he has been falsely implicated in the case and has not committed any of the crimes alleged by the prosecution. On May 21, the trial court had framed charges of sexual harassment, intimidation and outraging the modesty of women.
The court had also framed charges of criminal intimidation against co-accused and former WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar in the case. The Delhi Police had registered an FIR against Singh after the intervention of the Supreme Court in May 2023.
