In Jantar Mantar, where some of the top athletes of the country have been sitting in protest for days, Olympian Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat sit beside a sleeping man with a bandaged head. They claim he was injured in a scuffle that broke out last night with the Delhi Police. The wrestlers, who have been protesting in the capital amid camera crews and tight security for over a week, have resumed their protest and are demanding justice for the alleged abuse they faced late on Wednesday night.
The incident took place at around 10:00 pm when Sakshi Malik, Vinesh and a few others were carrying the folded cots inside their tent to avoid sleeping on wet mattresses. The wrestlers claimed that this is when they were pushed by two constables of the Delhi Police.
A scuffle broke out soon after this. Several videos and photos of the incident have since been in circulation on social media. Videos of Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik in tears have flooded the media.
The wrestlers have been sitting in protest in the national capital since April 23, demanding the arrest of WFI chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for the alleged sexual harassment of seven wrestlers, including a minor.
The protesting athletes have offered to return their medals and awards to the government, saying these honours are of no use if they are being subjected to such humiliation. The wrestlers say that all they needed were 12-13 wooden, foldable cots to survive the rainy nights. “We have been holding a peaceful protest for days and sleeping on mattresses. In the last few days, the rain soaked all our mattresses and all we needed were foldable cots to sleep in. Why would they hit us for that?” says Somvir Rathee, husband of Vinesh Phogat, at the protest site.
The Delhi Police, however, has alleged that the scuffle broke out because of AAP leader Somnath Bharti, who was standing a few metres from where the wrestlers were camped. Bharti allegedly tried to break the barricades and enter the protest site with folded beds without permission.
“During the protest at Jantar Mantar, Bharti came to the protest site along with folding beds without permission. When we intervened, the supporters became aggressive to get the beds out of the truck. Subsequently, a minor altercation took place in which Bharti along with two others was detained,” according to a Delhi Police personnel, who further stated that the scuffle broke out at 10.30 pm after Bharti’s intervention.
An eyewitness, who spoke on condition of anonymity, however, said that the beds the wrestlers received had no connection with Bharti’s coming to the site. “We had placed an order for those beds at 5 pm in the evening on Wednesday. Bharti came on his own,” he said.
“It all started because the police wanted to create a scene. When we reached for the beds, we already saw police barricading us and they did this because they have been long wanting to dismantle our unity and the protest. Each time we have raised a question, we have been treated with similar behaviour,” says Olympian Bajrang Punia, who has been one of the prominent faces of the protest.
Punia, along with other protesters, further claim that police behaved improperly with Sakshi, Vinesh and Sangeeta Phogat, wife of Bajrang, while a drunk constable, by the name of Dharmendra, touched them inappropriately and pushed them. The wrestlers alleged that they were verbally abused by the police personnel and during the brawl, in which three people, including Dushyant Phogat, brother-in-law of Punia, sustained head injuries. One person has been hospitalised.
Sombir says that they demanded a breathalyser test for the two constables to check if they were inebriated, but that was never done. Instead, two protesters were picked up by the police. While one has returned to the protest site in the morning, the whereabouts of the other person are unknown.
At the same time, Delhi Commission for Women Chief Swati Maliwal, and Congress leader Deepender Hooda, among others, who were present at the protest site, were detained. An independent journalist, Sakshi Joshi, was also detained for recording the site around midnight. Sakhi’s clothes were torn while she was dragged to the police van and then dropped off at the Mandir Marg Police Station at 1.00 am. “My phone was snatched, my salwar was torn and after nearly an hour of harassment, I was dropped near the police station and asked to go back alone,” Sakshi says, while recalling the horrific incident that incidentally took place on World’s Press Freedom Day.
Swati Maliwal says, “The situation for the women, who once made you (referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi), is so sorrowful that today they want to return their medals.” “Shame on this situation and the Delhi Police,” she adds.
Amid the milieu of protesters, athletes, police and politicians, some raise slogans: “Agaar chapaan inch ka chaati hai, toh nyay dilao…”. But, as the wrestlers and protesters are finding out, getting justice in India is rarely easy.
