Sakshi Malik Slams Sanjay Singh For Fake Certificate Distribution

India's Olympic medalist Sakshi Malik has slammed the suspended Wrestling Federation Of India (WFI) president Sanjay Singh for allowing the distributing fake certificates to wrestlers at the National Championships in Pune. Sakshi shared a photo on social media where she stated that a 'fake' certificate was handed out to wrestlers for winning a silver medal in a certain category. (More Wrestling News)

She pointed fingers at WFI as to how they hosted the senional national championships in Pune, saying that the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) -led ad-hoc committee had scheduled the nationals in February. She urged the Sports Minister to look forward into the issue and not meddle with the future of the young wrestlers.

"The Government of India had suspended the activities of Brij Bhushan's associate Sanjay Singh, yet Sanjay Singh is running the National Wrestling Championship as per his wish and is distributing fake certificates to the players, which is illegal. The Wrestling National Championship organized by the Sports Ministry is to be held in Jaipur, but before that, to prove his dominance over wrestling, Sanjay Singh is illegally signing and distributing certificates of different National Championships," Sakshee Malikkh said in her post.

"How can a suspended person of the organization misuse the money of the organization? Tomorrow when the players go to ask for jobs with these certificates, action will be taken against the poor players. Whereas there is no fault of the players.

"Action should be taken immediately against Sanjay Singh who is committing such fraud and who is still committing all these frauds despite the ban on his activities. I appeal to the Sports Minister Shri Anurag Thakur ji to look into this issue and save the future of the players from getting spoiled," she added.

Earlier, the Sports Ministry had warned of legal action against suspended Wrestling Federation of India president Sanjay Singh for making "absolutely baseless and mischievous" claims with regard to government recognition to WFI and reiterated that any tournament organised by the body shall be treated as "unsanctioned".

The national body was suspended by the Sports Ministry on December 24, just three days after it held its election for violating its own constitution after it announced to host the 2023 age group nationals in Gonda, UP in the last week of December.

The Sports Ministry had since maintained that the Nationals organised by WFI will not be recognised.

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has since set up an ad-hoc committee to look into the day-to-day affairs of WFI on the directive of Sports Ministry.

"In light of the above, you are hereby strongly advised to desist from making any further unsubstantiated claims regarding the status of the Wrestling Federation of India.

"Please be advised that failure to adhere to this caution may compel the Ministry to consider further legal action, including but not limited to legal proceedings for spreading misinformation and unsubstantiated claims and any other relevant charges as per the laws of the country," the ministry said.