Days after the wrestlers decided to immerse their medals, won at various championships, in Ganga, a delegation, consisting of wrestlers and their coaches, met with Home Minister Amit Shah at his official residence on late June 3, sources said.
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However, the Ministry of Home Affairs has denied that any such meeting took place.
According to Bharatiya Kisan Union leader Rakesh Tikait, the wrestlers were planning to approach both the President and the Home Minister for their demands pertaining to the ongoing agitation. He announced regarding the meeting on June 1, at a mahapanchayat held in Muzaffarnagar.
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On late June 3, when the wrestlers, along with coaches, met with the Home Minister, their foremost demand was to call for the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who has been accused of sexually harassing and threatening wrestlers.
A source told The Hindu, “In the meeting, which lasted for around two hours, the wrestlers pressed for timely action and demanded an unbiased investigation, to which, the Home Minister told them to trust the process of investigation, which is still under way and the law shall take its course.”
In the said meeting, wrestlers requested the Home Minister to take back the FIR filed against them. An FIR was registered against the wrestlers on May 28, after they had marched towards when the new Parliament building during its inauguration. They were booked under rioting.
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They also requested that no proceedings take place, since they are expected to join their jobs.
“They even requested that nobody from Mr. Singh’s family shall be a member or part of the federation, and a chief should be selected without any criminal history and should be a senior member, with experience [...] and that a woman should be made the head of the federation,” the source said.
The source said they were planning to meet the Home Minister again for a similar meeting.