Suspension of WFI unacceptable, will challenge it in court: Wrestling body chief Sanjay Singh

Wrestling Federation of India President Sanjay Singh on Thursday said that the suspension of the sport body by the Centre is not acceptable and will be challenged in court, PTI reported.

Sanjay Singh was elected as the president of the wrestling federation on December 21. He had received 40 votes to the seven that 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist wrestler Anita Sheoran won in the elections.

He is a close aide of former wrestling federation chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who was forced to step down from his post last year after top wrestlers of the country accused him of sexual harassment.

Soon after Sanjay Singh’s election, Sakshi Malik, a bronze medallist from the 2016 Summer Olympics, had in protest announced her retirement from the sport.

On December 24, the Union sports ministry suspended the wrestling body. The development came after Sanjay Singh announced that Under-15 and Under-20 nationals for wrestling would take place in the Nandini Nagar area of Uttar Pradesh’s Gonda district before the end of the year.

The district of Gonda is the stronghold of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is the MP from the Kaiserganj constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

The ministry had also noted that the work of the federation was being carried out from the premises controlled by its former office-bearers,...

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