Following the filing of FIRs against the country’s top wrestlers following the confrontation with Delhi Police, Rio 2016 bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, Tokyo 2020 medallist Bajrang Punia, and world championship medallist Vinesh Phogat have said they will throw their medals in the Ganga at Haridwar on Tuesday to protest the police’s harshness.
The wrestlers have also said that they would fast till death near New Delhi’s India Gate. “These medals are our soul and life.” There would be no reason for us to survive if we threw it into the Ganga. So we’ll travel to India Gate and fast till we die,” the wrestlers stated in a statement, according to The Indian Express.
Wrestlers demonstrating at Jantar Mantar marched to the new Parliament building on Sunday to organise a women’s ‘Mahapanchayat’ outside the Parliament as it was being inaugurated. However, they were apprehended by Delhi Police on the way.
Later, the authorities arrested them and cleaned up their protest camp at Jantar Mantar. Wrestlers resisted arrest, resulting in spectacular photos of wrestlers being seized and hoisted by numerous policewomen and loaded into buses.
“You all saw whatever occurred on May 28. The way the cops handled us and detained us. Despite the fact that we were demonstrating peacefully, the police not only cleaned away our demonstration location at Jantar Mantar, but also filed FIRs against us. Have female athletes committed a crime by seeking justice for sexual harassment perpetrated on them? “We’ve been treated like criminals,” read a statement made by all three wrestlers on social media.
