New Delhi: Even as the Delhi Police filed a chargesheet against benched Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the Chandigarh Police have yet to decide on prosecuting similar allegations brought by a woman athlete against Haryana minister and former Indian hockey captain Sandeep Singh more than six months ago.
The Chandigarh Police had filed a First Information Report (FIR) against Sandeep Singh after the track and field athlete held a press conference on 29 December 2022. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed to investigate the case is, however, yet to submit its findings.
ThePrint reached Deputy Superintendent of Police Palak Goel, an officer of the Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu Police Services (DANIPS) and the investigating officer (IO) in the case, via text message for a comment on the issue. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
Like Brij Bhushan, Sandeep Singh, who inspired the Hindi film Soorma, has also been booked under various IPC sections dealing with sexual harassment — 354 (assault of criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354A (sexual harassment and punishment for sexual harassment) and 354B (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe.
In addition, he faces charges under sections 342 (wrongful confinement), and 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (word, gesture or act to insult the modesty of a woman). He is yet to be arrested in the case.
Unlike in the case of Brij Bhushan, however, there were no prolonged protests demanding Sandeep Singh’s resignation, even though calls for his dismissal were raised in the Haryana assembly.
Soon after the charges, the former hockey captain announced he was stepping aside from the sports ministry until investigations were completed. He, however, remained minister for printing and stationery.
But calls for his dismissal continued even after this, with the opposition Congress raising the demand in assembly during the state’s budget session in February. The minister did not attend the session at that time.
Despite the growing clamour for his resignation, the BJP has defended the minister. In a sharp retort to media queries, Khattar in January called the woman’s accusation “absurd”, even saying allegations “didn’t make one guilty”.
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Delay in chargesheet
At a press conference she held on 29 December last year, the woman athlete, also a junior coach, claimed Sandeep Singh had called her to his residence and tried to touch her “inappropriately”.
In the FIR against Sandeep Singh, filed at Chandigarh’s Sector 26 police station, the athlete accused the former hockey star of trying to kiss her and tug at her T-shirt, which tore in the process, and attempting to rape her on 1 July 2022. She also alleged that he threatened to transfer her if she kept refusing his advances.
Since then, the complainant has voiced her unhappiness at the pace of investigations.
In an interview with ThePrint, she cited an incident of alleged sexual assault that occurred on 2 March, 2022.
“When I rejected his advances, he grabbed me by my hair and banged my head against the wall. He tore the crop top I was wearing and then complimented my bra, saying purple is his favourite colour,” she had said.
When ThePrint visited her on 9 May, IO Palak Goel had refused to comment on the delay in filing the chargesheet.
Police, meanwhile, have repeatedly sought a polygraph test on Sandeep Singh, even moving an application in the Panchkula district court on 10 March. After taking further dates from the court four times, the minister posted a detailed response on 5 May in which he refused to undergo the test.
Instead, he accused the SIT of prolonging the “agony”, stretching the matter, and filing applications for conducting various tests that cannot be admitted in evidence.
Former commissioner of Delhi Police Neeraj Kumar, while speaking to ThePrint in May, had said that the delay in filing a chargesheet or a police request for a polygraph test are not unusual developments.
“During my stint as commissioner, I had filed a chargesheet 13 years after the case was registered,” Kumar had said then, adding that the IO cannot be asked about the delay.
“Only supervising officers or courts can ask that question.”
Deepanshu Bansal, the complainant’s lawyer, said the woman athlete had submitted all her statements and proof to the SIT in the first week of January.
“The mapping of the crime scene, witness evidence and statements were all done in January itself. If any common man is booked under such sections, they usually get a chargesheet within three months. This kind of delay, especially when a minister is involved in the case, is not justified,” Bansal had told ThePrint then.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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