Delhi court acquits WFI chief Brij Bhushan Singh, calls sexual harassment claims 'false, fabricated, politically motivated'

A Delhi court has acquitted former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh and assistant secretary Vinod Tomar, citing a lack of evidence. The court declared the sexual harassment allegations against Singh as "false" and "fabricated," suggesting they were part of a "deep conspiracy which seems to be politically motivated."

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I have no hitch in saying that the version given by the victims...discredits the prosecution case completely and also shows that the entire allegations are false and fabricated, made against the accused persons in a deep conspiracy which seems to be politically motivated.

The acquittal comes two years after the trial began. Additional chief judicial magistrate Ashwini Panwar noted significant contradictions in the victims' accounts and inconsistencies in documentary evidence. The court also highlighted the absence of "contemporaneous complaints" despite alleged incidents supposedly being witnessed or disclosed to others.

Specific incidents were scrutinized, including one allegedly occurring during an Olympic qualification. The court pointed out discrepancies in the complainant's statements regarding the location and year of the event, noting it was not a minor variation but concerned fundamental details. Another alleged incident in a Delhi stadium in 2018 also lacked independent eyewitnesses, leading the court to question the natural conduct of those present.

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The discrepancy is not a mere variation in peripheral details; it concerns the fundamental particulars of the alleged occurrence, namely, the country and the year in which the incident purportedly took place.

The judgment suggested the conspiracy against the accused may have been hatched by coaches from the Mahadev Academy and two prosecution witnesses. The court's findings cast doubt on the veracity of the allegations, leading to the acquittal of both Singh and Tomar.

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...it is not the natural conduct of the persons surrounding and watching her suffer; the least they could have done was to get her out of that situation or confront the accused.