Delhi Police has stated in its chargesheet that Vinod Tomar, the Assistant Secretary of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), “intentionally aided” and “facilitated” WFI President and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who has been accused of sexual harassment by six top women wrestlers.
Tomar has been named as a co-accused in two of the six complaints. According to the chargesheet, Tomar ensured that the complainants were alone when they visited Singh on three separate occasions at his office-cum-residence on Ashoka Road in the capital.
The chargesheet alleges that Tomar deliberately prevented the husband from accompanying the complainant and a coach from accompanying another complainant, thus facilitating a private meeting between the women wrestlers and Singh.
Image source: PTI
Vinod Tomar, a longstanding association with the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) for more than two decades, has been charged under several sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)including– Section 506 for criminal intimidation, Section 109 for abetment, Section 354 for outraging the modesty of a woman, and Section 354 A for sexual harassment.
A complaint by one of the wrestlers mentioned in the chargesheet states that during a visit to the WFI office in Delhi along with her husband to meet Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Vinod Tomar, the accused, allowed only the victim to enter the office intentionally while preventing her husband from entering. The wrestler states that she was molested on that day by Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. The next day, her husband was again not allowed to enter the office, and the victim was allegedly molested once more. These incidents reportedly took place in 2017.
According to the charge sheet, Vinod Tomar’s actions of not allowing the complainant’s husband to wait near Brij Bhushan’s office and instead making him sit near Tomar’s office indicate a clear malicious intent on his part. The chargesheet highlights that the door of Brij Bhushan’s room was not visible from where Tomar made the complainant’s husband wait, implying a deliberate attempt to prevent any oversight of the events taking place.
It is alleged that Tomar called this wrestler to his house, where she was subjected to humiliation and mental harassment due to her failure to secure a position at the Olympics.
In a similar incident that occurred in 2022, Tomar reportedly asked the coach of another complainant to wait outside while the wrestler was called to meet Brij Bhushan in his office.
As per the chargesheet, the complainant stated in her statement under Section 164 that Tomar entered Brij Bhushan’s chamber and then asked the victim to go inside alone, intentionally preventing the coach from accompanying her and closing the door. Brij Bhushan during this time made inappropriate sexual advances, seeking sexual favors.
The chargesheet asserts that Tomar aided and facilitated the commission of this offence in a premeditated manner.
Brij Bhushan denies inappropriate contact with wrestlers
According to a report, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the President of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP has denied all allegations of sexual harassment.
He has refuted the claims that he touched a wrestler’s stomach and breast under the pretext of checking her breathing pattern. Brij Bhushan has described the allegations as “baseless and false.” Furthermore, he cited yoga exercises as the reason for checking the wrestlers’ breathing patterns.
