Top wrestler quits the game after Indian wrestling physique replaces the highly effective president accused of sexual abuse along with his shut ally.

A high Indian wrestler has introduced she’s going to stop the game in protest after the nation’s wrestling federation changed a president accused of sexually abusing feminine athletes along with his shut ally.

Sakshi Malik, an acclaimed wrestler who received a bronze medal on the 2016 Rio Olympics and led protests in opposition to Brij Bhushan Singh, the previous chief of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), introduced her retirement on Thursday.

“We slept for 40 days on the roads and a lot of people from several parts of the country came to support us,” Malik, 31, informed a information convention in New Delhi, referring to the protests earlier this yr.

“If Brij Bhushan Singh’s business partner and a close aide is elected as the president of WFI, I quit wrestling”, she stated earlier than leaving the convention with tears in her eyes.

VIDEO | “We gathered a lot of courage for this fight against the WFI President (Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh). But today, his right hand (referring to Sanjay Singh) has been elected as the new WFI President. We had demanded a woman be made the president, but that has not been… pic.twitter.com/UMwOMRnnNI

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 21, 2023

Malik turned an outspoken voice over harassment and discrimination faced by female athletes in India, a plight underscored by expenses filed in opposition to Singh in June accusing him of sexually harassing six feminine wrestlers, together with a minor, throughout his time main the WFI.

Singh, who can also be a six-time parliamentarian and member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), denied any wrongdoing, dramatically stating then that he’ll cling himself if the accusations are confirmed to be true.

Asked about Malik’s determination to stop, 66-year-old Singh on Thursday stated, “I have nothing to do with it.”

Singh was stripped of his administrative duties in January, and the federal government promised to research the accusations. But Malik and different athletes renewed their protests in April after the federal government refused to reveal the findings of a panel wanting into the incidents.

In latest months, Singh actively campaigned for Sanjay Singh to exchange him and predicted his victory to the native press.

On Thursday, the WFI voted to exchange Brij Bhushan Singh with Sanjay Singh, who defeated Anita Sheoran, one other contender for the presidency who had received a gold medal within the 2010 Commonwealth Games and had supported the marketing campaign by the athletes to deliver consideration to the allegations of abuse.

“It’s a very big victory of truth over lies,” Sanjay Singh informed members of the media after securing 40 out of the 47 votes by the federation’s member establishments. He informed reporters that he was dedicated to supporting wrestlers, however didn’t touch upon Malik’s announcement.

The United World Wrestling (UWW), the worldwide wrestling physique which suspended the Indian federation in August over the wrestlers’ protest, is but to touch upon the election.