Wrestlers resume duties with Railways, Sakshi refutes reports of withdrawing from protest

After getting evicted from Jantar Mantar on May 28, top wrestlers Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Vinesh Phogat have resumed their duties in the Railways, sources said.

As per reports, records from the Northern Railways headquarters show Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik joined her Baroda House office here on May 31, a day after the trio stopped short of immersing their international medals in the Ganga.

On Monday, Sakshi, too, confirmed the news. However, she denied rumours about withdrawing from the agitation. "The news is completely wrong. None of us has backed down. We will continue our fight for justice and meanwhile, I am fulfilling my responsibility in Railways," she said.

Earlier, Bajrang, Sakshi and Vinesh met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at his residence to discuss the matter related to their protest against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

"They shared their concern with the Home Minister. The meeting was long and he listened to everything. But 'koi decision nahi hua abhi tak (no decision has been reached so far)'," a source close to the wrestlers told IANS.

Bajrang, Sakshi and Vinesh have been leading the protest by the wrestlers since April, accusing the sidelined president of the WFI, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexual harassment against many wrestlers, including a minor.

The protesting wrestlers were manhandled and detained by Delhi Police and their arrangements at the protest site, Jantar Mantar, were dismantled.

The wrestlers had gone to Haridwar claiming that they wanted to drop their medals in the river Ganga. With many people requesting them not to take the drastic action, they decided to hand over the medals to the farmers' leaders to take a call.