'Touched my own stomach not of woman wrestler': Brij Bhushan brazens it out

The Indian Express has reported that the former Wrestling Federation of India chief, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, was questioned by the government-appointed Oversight Committee in February. The MC Mary Kom-led panel prepared a 24-page-long transcript of the 66-year-old BJP MP's response on the sexual harassment, molestation and criminal intimidation accusations levelled by the country's top wrestlers.

The Delhi Police has also included the saffron lawmaker's deposition in the chargesheet.

One of the wrestlers had accused Singh of touching her inappropriately on the pretext of checking her breathing pattern. The newspaper reported that in his response to the 6-member panel, he called the allegation baseless and went on to say that he touched his own stomach.

He said, "So we said that her breathing pattern is reverse. Madam, I have been a victim of this. For around 20 years, I could not sleep properly. An incident had taken place and my son had committed suicide and I found refuge in Yoga. I was told that since my breathing pattern is reverse I am unable to sleep."

He further told the panel that since the wrestler and the coach asked him the meaning of reverse breathing, he demonstrated it to them and said: "I placed my hand on my stomach and showed them that when we breathe in, the stomach should expand and contract when we breathe out. Everyone checked their breathing at that moment, when the complainant came I told her to join yoga as well."

Singh was also asked about why the women and men were practising separately and in his reply, the Kaiserganj MP said that the parents of women grapplers wanted it and in his experience men and women should anyway pratice separately or 'it will impact their training'.

When asked about the absence of an internal complaint committee in the wrestling federation that he has headed for over 10 years, the 5-time BJP MP said, "If any such rule is laid down saying that women should be a part of the committee and if we would have known about it, we would have done it definitely."

Pertinently, the law which was implented in 2013 dictates that women must be part of the complaint panels.