Noida: At 5 pm on Tuesday, the drummers had already begun rehearsing. For nearly two hours, men carrying dhols and nagadas periodically broke into practice beats outside a community centre in Noida, awaiting the arrival of former Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Plastic baskets filled with rose petals sat stacked near the entrance. Marigold garlands framed the glass doors. Waiters in uniform moved through the crowd balancing trays of coffee.
By the time Singh arrived shortly after 7 pm, the gathering looked less like a political event than a neighbourhood wedding reception.
As his convoy entered, chants of “Brij Bhushan ji ko Jai Shri Ram” echoed through the hall. Rose petals rained down on him. Residents rose from their seats. Supporters carrying flower bouquets rushed towards the entrance as a massive floral garland, carried by three men, was brought forward to honour him.
Behind the stage hung a large banner that read: “Satyamev Jayate, Satya Ki Jeet Hui” (Truth alone triumphs, truth has prevailed).
Barely two days after a Delhi court acquitted Singh and former WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar in a sexual harassment case filed by six women wrestlers, the former BJP MP appeared before supporters for what was effectively his political homecoming.
The venue itself was unusual. This was neither New Delhi, India’s political power centre, nor Kaiserganj in Uttar Pradesh — the parliamentary constituency from which Singh was elected six times. Instead, the event, described as a “Milan Samaroh”, was organised inside a residential society community centre in Sector 14, Noida.
The gathering drew residents of the bungalow-dominated housing society, BJP workers, local wrestlers, supporters from Delhi and Noida, members of NGOs carrying commemorative mementos, and children from a wrestling academy in Sorkha who had come to be photographed with him.
The event was organised by the family of his daughter Shalini’s in-laws. Shalini is married to Vishal Singh, who belongs to a prominent political and cooperative family from Bihar and lives in Noida. Her brothers also joined them on stage. Throughout the evening, gifts continued to arrive — a copy of the Bhagavad Gita, a golden gada, bouquets and ceremonial shawls.
Power show
If the legal verdict ended one chapter, Tuesday’s event sought to begin another.
“Aaj hamara swagat ho raha hai (Today I am being welcomed),” he said with a smile that drew laughter from the audience.
He then suggested that this was not the occasion for a political speech.
“What should I say here? This isn’t the topic to be discussed. But you all have come here because you want me to speak.”
Addressing the crowd, Singh did not directly comment on the events of the past three years since the case was filed in April 2023. Instead, he turned to mythology. He drew parallels between his own political journey and episodes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Recalling the story of Kaikeyi and Manthara before Lord Ram’s exile, he argued that history had wrongly blamed individuals who merely became instruments in a larger divine plan.
He said Kaikeyi bore lifelong condemnation because destiny required Ram to become Maryada Purushottam, rather than merely the king of Ayodhya.
“Just as someone placed the gun on Kaikeyi’s shoulder and fired, similarly God has placed the gun on the shoulders of many wrestlers and fired it. They are not at fault. They have been given a false role.”
Singh also invoked the story of Eklavya and Dronacharya from the Mahabharata, saying that although neither played a central role in the epic, both continue to be remembered because of the episode involving Eklavya’s severed thumb. Drawing a parallel with his own case, he suggested that the sexual harassment allegations had only amplified his public profile.
“Earlier, only people in Uttar Pradesh knew me. Today, people across India—and even around the world—know who I am,” he said, adding that it was all part of a divine plan to make him famous.
Singh ended his speech by saying that he had never considered himself guilty.
“From the day allegations were framed against me to this day, I have never considered myself a criminal. The feeling of being a criminal has never entered me.”
He claimed that while laws meant to protect women were necessary, “their misuse is increasing.”
In 2023, six prominent women wrestlers accused Singh, then chief of the Wrestling Federation of India, of sexual harassment, stalking and criminal intimidation. The accusations triggered one of the biggest athlete-led protests in independent India, and brought national focus on questions of athlete safety, accountability and political influence.
Olympic medallists and international wrestlers staged prolonged demonstrations at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, demanding Singh’s arrest.
On 3 August 2026, however, a Delhi court acquitted Singh and Tomar, holding that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges beyond reasonable doubt. Olympian Vinesh Phogat, who was one of the six complainants, said women wrestlers “have instructed their lawyers to file an appeal against this verdict”.
Legally, the acquittal signifies that the prosecution did not establish criminal guilt to the standard required in a criminal trial. It does not amount to a judicial declaration that the allegations themselves were false. For Singh’s supporters, however, those distinctions found little space inside the community hall.
The evening was framed not as the conclusion of a criminal trial, but as a celebration of vindication.
(Edited by Prashant Dixit)