Delhi Police to register FIR on a complaint of 7 wrestlers, Supreme Court told

Solicitor general asked the SC to dispose of the petition filed by the wrestlers since the city police has agreed to register an FIR

NEW DELHI: The Delhi police will register a first information report (FIR) on a complaint submitted by seven women wrestlers including a minor accusing Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexual harassment, solicitor general Tushar Mehta told the Supreme Court on Friday.

The Supreme Court asked the Delhi Police to assess the threat to the minor complainant who accused WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexual harassment (HT photo/Vipin Kumar)

“The FIR will be registered today. Nothing survives now,” Mehta told the bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and justice PS Narasimha which took up a petition filed by three top women wrestlers seeking directions to register a criminal case on their April 21 complaint submitted to the Delhi police.

The bench took the statement on record and posted the matter after a week after it was shown a sealed cover by the petitioners showing sensitive information about the threat to life faced by the minor complainant. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who appeared for the petitioners, also shared the material with Mehta.

Sibal stressed the need to ensure the safety of all the complainants - he said the minor girl left Delhi as she feared for her security - and sought the appointment of a special task force to probe the case which could be monitored by a retired judge of the Supreme Court.

The bench directed the city police commissioner to examine the material brought on record by Sibal and assess the threat to the girl and provide adequate security. The bench said this direction did not stand in the way of the police making an independent assessment of the threat to the remaining six complainants.

Mehta, who appeared for the Delhi Police, on Thursday told the top court that the police felt that the complaint may need a preliminary enquiry before filing an FIR.

On Friday, he said that it was decided to register FIR once it was found that the complaint disclosed a cognizable offence. “Now there is something more to it. It is going in a different direction,” Mehta said, asking the top court to dispose of the petition since it only sought registration of an FIR which was being done.

The court asked Delhi Police to file an affidavit by Friday on the steps taken for providing security to the girl but clarified that the bench won’t “monitor or channelize investigation”.

In their petition, the wrestlers said that the Centre did not act on their complaints raised in January this year and that an oversight committee was formed by the sports ministry to investigate the complaints by wrestlers but its outcome was not known. They argued that the police could not refuse to register an FIR if it discloses a cognizable offence and alleged that this was not done because of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s influence. Singh is a member of parliament from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

Olympic bronze medallists Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik and two-time World Championships medallist Vinesh Phogat, along with several other wrestlers, have been sitting at Jantar Mantar since Sunday demanding that an FIR be lodged against Singh. This is the second time in three months that the wrestlers have camped in Delhi to raise their demands.