Delhi court orders framing of sexual harassment charges against BJP’s Brij Bhushan Singh

BJP member and former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh

A court in Delhi on May 10 ordered framing of charges against BJP leader and member of parliament Brij Bhushan Singh in the alleged case of sexual harassment of six women wrestlers.

The former Wrestling Federation of India chief has been charged with the offence of outraging the modesty of women.

The order was passed by additional chief metropolitan magistrate (ACMM) Priyanka Rajpoot. The court was supposed to pass the order on Tuesday, but was adjourned after ACMM said some corrections were required in the order.

The court said it has found enough evidence against the accused and charges were framed against Brij Bhushan under sections 354 and 354A in respect of five women wrestlers.

The judge, in the order, also said that evidence were also found under section 506 part 1 of the Indian Penal Code with respect to the five victims.

However, the court acquitted Brij Bhushan of the charges levelled by the sixth wrestler.

Reacting to the development, Singh said, "Prima facie the court has framed the charges today. Except for one case, they have framed charges in the remaining cases. I welcome the decision of the judiciary and now doors have opened for me."

Singh is BJP's member of parliament from Kaisergunj in Uttar Pradesh in the outgoing Lok Sabha. After facing much backlash, the saffron party decided to give ticket to his son Karan Bhushan Singh for the Kaisergunj seat.

Olympic medalist Sakshi Malikkh welcomed the decision of the court and said a step closer to justice was taken after a lot of sacrifices made by the wrestlers.

The court also framed charges against the other accused Vinod Tomar under Section 506 part 1 regarding one of the victims. However, it discharged Tomar for other offences.

The court had earlier dismissed the BJP leader's plea for time to make further submissions on the charges. He had claimed that he was not in the country on the date of one of the incidents.

Singh's counsel had claimed that the Delhi Police had relied upon the call detail records (CDR) of the coach who had accompanied the complainant and stated that they had gone to the WFI on September 7, 2022, where she was allegedly molested. However, the CDR has not been placed on record by the police, the counsel had claimed.

The city police had filed a charge sheet in the case against Singh, a six-time MP, on June 15 under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment), 354D (stalking) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. The city police had filed a charge sheet in the case against Singh, a six-time MP, on June 15 under sections 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment), 354D (stalking) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC.

With inputs from PTI