NEW DELHI: A five-member panel led by boxer MC Mary Kom will manage the daily running of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), which has been hit with sexual harassment allegations, India’s sports minister said on Monday.

The country’s top wrestlers staged a sit-in protest in the capital New Delhi last week accusing WFI President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and coaches of sexually harassing several female wrestlers.

Singh has denied any wrongdoing but the sports ministry has stripped the WFI top brass of all administrative powers and tas­k­ed an oversight committee with running the federation and looking into the allegations.

“The WFI president will stay away from the federation’s day-to-day administrative duties and the oversight committee will take over,” sports minister Anu­rag Thakur told reporters.

“Over the next one month, the committee will hear all the parties invol­ved and carry out its own investigation before submitting their report to us.”

Apart from Mary Kom, the face of Indian women’s boxing, the five-member committee includes Olym­pic bronze medallist wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt and former badminton player Trupti Murgunde.

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2023