A seven member committee of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) including former Indian wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt will probe the sexual harassment allegations against WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and other coaches, according to the news agency ANI.
Members of the committee include Olympic medallist Mary Kom, former archer Dola Banerjee, Alaknanda Ashok, London Olympic medallist Yogeshwar Dutt, Indian Weightlifting Federation President Sahdev Yadav and two advocates.
“The panel will prepare a report within eight to ten days, which will then be submitted to the Sports Ministry, Home Ministry, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Yogeshwar Dutt said as quoted by ANI.
Dutt stated that the Committee will prepare a report within 8-10 days after listening to both sides. "We will send the report to both the Sports Ministry and Home Ministry as well as to the Prime Minister," he said as quoted by ANI.
“There can be no compromise in sexual harassment allegations. If it happened, it should be probed and the accused must be punished. Also, if the allegations are false, it should be probed why were they levelled and what was the motive behind this?" Dutt concluded.
Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur said that the WFI chief step aside till the completion of the probe by the oversight committee and he will join the probe.
The minister also announced the constitution of an oversight committee to probe the allegations levelled against the WFI and added that till the completion of the inquiry, a committee will look after the day-to-day activities of WFI.
Indian wrestlers including Olympic and Commonwealth Games (CWG) medalists held a protest in Delhi as women wrestlers levelled serious charges of sexual harassment by the president and coaches of the WFI and of mismanagement in the functioning of the federation.
