New Delhi: India’s top wrestlers, who were recently detained and removed from their protest site at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, have said they will immerse their medals in river Ganga at 6 pm on Tuesday and then sit on an indefinite hunger strike at India Gate.
Wrestlers including Sakshee Malikkh, Bajrang Punia and Sangeeta Phogat, put out a statement on their respective Twitter handles, saying the grapplers would go to Haridwar and immerse the medals in river Ganga at 6 pm. “These medals are our lives, our souls. There would be no reason to live after throwing them in the Ganga today. So, we will stage a hunger strike until death at India Gate after that,” read the statement in Hindi.
This comes a day after the grapplers were removed from Jantar Mantar by Delhi police who said that they violated the law.
A scuffle had escalated between wrestlers and cops on Sunday when the former tried to march towards the new Parliament building to hold ‘Mahila Mahapanchayat’. However, owing to the inauguration ceremony, police stopped them which resulted in a clash post which the police detained several wrestlers.
The photos of the clash went viral on social media. Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur stated that the demonstrators were not interfered with as long as they remained within the designated area at Jantar Mantar, news agency PTI reported.
On Sunday, Delhi police apprehended Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Sangeeta Phogat, Sakshi Malik and numerous others who were endeavoring to advance towards the new Parliament building for a women’s “Mahapanchayat. ”
On Sunday, the wrestlers who had been holding protests at Jantar Mantar since April 23 to demand the arrest of BJP MP and Wrestling Federation of India head Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, whom they accused of sexually harassing female wrestlers were arrested temporarily and released later.