Elisha Vermani 
New Delhi: A day after her disqualification from the Paris Olympics, wrestler Vinesh Phogat’s counsel told the Delhi high court on Thursday (August 8) that the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) and its president, Sanjay Singh, were making decisions on her behalf at the Olympics village.
WFI’s elected executive committee was suspended by the Union sports ministry in 2023, senior advocate Rahul Mehra pointed out at the hearing.
Mehra, arguing for Phogat, said, “[WFI] is being manned by proxies. He [Sanjay Singh] is right now in the Olympic village deciding what should happen to Vinesh Phogat,” adding that this is happening despite the WFI executive committee’s suspension.
Phogat, on Wednesday (August 7), was disqualified ahead of her gold medal bout for breaching the 50kg weight limit by 100 gms. Her disqualification came a day after Phogat stunned Japan’s Yui Susaki, ending her 82-0 streak at the Olympics, marking the Japanese grappler’s first international loss, before surging to the finals against the US.
The Union government’s standing counsel Anil Soni on Thursday said that “today the entire nation is with (Phogat), I’ll not argue against her.”
Wrestlers Phogat, Bajrang Punia and others had filed a writ petition in the Delhi high court earlier this year challenging the fresh elections conducted for WFI in December 2023.
The grapplers – who were at the forefront of protests against then Bharatiya Janata Party MP and WFI President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh over allegations of sexual assault – wanted the elections to be declared illegal for not adhering to the sports code.
Brij Bhushan’s close aide, Sanjay Singh, had won the elections, after which he had celebrated his victory at Bhushan’s house. The sexual assault-accused former WFI chief had put up a banner saying “Dab Dabba Hai, Dab Dabba Rahega (We dominate, our domination will continue)” to mark the occasion.
An application seeking a stay on the functioning of the WFI had also been filed alongside the writ petition. The application was heard by Justice Sachin Datta who was set to announce his verdict on May 24 but that did not happen. On Thursday, the petitioners, which include Phogat, requested Justice Datta’s court to fix a date for the judgment.
According to the Indian Express, the judge did not specify a date even as Mehra, representing the petitioners, said that “India has lost a gold medal now”.
Also read: ‘Extent of Brij Bhushan’s Abuse Far Greater Than Criminal Charges’: Global Sports Coalition’s Report
Justice Purushaindra Kaurav, who was hearing the writ petition, asked the WFI to complete their pleadings in a week, adding that the petitioners can respond to it if they want to.
The court listed the matter for hearing on September 12 despite Mehra’s request for an earlier date as it is “a national interest matter, [and] the entire country is so upset.”
“Though suspended, WFI has full patronage of [the] sports ministry,” Mehra said in a post on X.
“Legitimate questions must be asked [and] will be asked. In fact, all questions ought to be directed to the federations and their conflicted bosses who are deliberately, wilfully and in a contemptuous manner violating all judgments, govt sports code [and] law of the land,” Mehra added.
‘Made to compete in 50 kg category’
While Vinesh was involved in protests against Bhushan, Antim Panghal, another Indian grappler, secured a quota place in the 53kg category for the Paris Olympics. Vinesh asked the ad-hoc committee which was running the WFI at the time to give her in writing that there would be a final selection trial for the 53kg category after all other qualifiers.
Although the committee had earlier decided that the top four wrestlers in every class, including the women’s 53kg category, would compete to determine a challenger for the quota-winners to decide on the Olympic spot, the committee refused to give this in writing to Phogat. Subsequently, the ad-hoc committee was dissolved and on May 21, the WFI, headed by Sanjay, announced that there will be no trials for quota winners.
The 29-year-old then had no option but to compete in a different weight category to ensure she did not miss the Paris Olympics.
“I will have to manage my weight a lot better. I have brought myself down to 50kg after very long so I will try and maintain this as much as I can,” Phogat had told PTI in April. “It’s not easy for me not to put on weight because my muscle mass is very high. Because of that, I gain weight easily. It doesn’t matter how fit I am, I still gain weight because I have a lot of muscle mass. I have four months left and every day is very important,” she had said.
WFI elections marred by confusion, legal disputes
Phogat, along with fellow wrestlers Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, were at the helm of the year-long protests against Singh that began in January 2023 when he was a sitting BJP MP. After sustained public outcry against the BJP strongman, WFI was asked to hold fresh elections in May 2023 or face suspension.
These elections were delayed several times and marred by legal disputes with the Guwahati, Delhi, Punjab and Haryana high courts imposing stays on the elections on several occasion between June-August 2023 before the body was ultimately suspended by United World Wrestling, the global governing body for the sport, for not conducting elections in a timely manner.
The WFI was able to conduct fresh elections in December 2023 in which Bhushan’s close aide, Sanjay, was made chief. “The succession of someone so closely connected to the alleged abuser is a clear sign that systemic reform has not taken place. There must be an extensive, transparent investigation into the full scope of Singh’s abuse and the culture, systems, and processes that enabled it for over 10 years,” Sports and Rights Alliance director Andrea Florence said.