How Delhi court’s acquittal of Brij Bhushan rested on ‘politically-motivated conspiracy’ angle

A major factor in Brij Bhushan’s acquittal was the court’s finding of ‘material contradictions’ and ‘substantial improvements’ in the testimony of primary complainants.

Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh was welcomed by his family members and supporters after getting relief from the court. In noida Uttarpradesh. ThePrint photo by Suraj Singh Bisht

New Delhi: The prosecution “miserably failed to prove the allegations against the accused persons beyond reasonable doubt,” ruled Delhi’s Rouse Avenue Court as it acquitted former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of all charges of sexual harassment and criminal intimidation levelled by six female wrestlers.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Ashwini Panwar of the Rouse Avenue Courts characterised the case against Singh, a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP, as a product of a “deep conspiracy”.

ThePrint has seen a copy of the judgment, which is not publicly available as yet.

The court had on 3 August acquitted Singh and co-accused Vinod Tomar, former assistant secretary of the WFI.

“…the entire allegations against the accused persons, are false and fabricated (and) made collectively…in a deep conspiracy which seems to be politically motivated,” judge Ashwani Panwar ruled. The court described complaints filed against Singh “tailor-made formal complaints drafted in fancy manner with similar excessive decoration”. 

It also observed that the allegations did not emerge until the wrestlers’ protest began in early 2023.

“To say this, I draw strength from the fact that out of five victims on whose allegation charges were framed against the accused persons (Singh and his aide Vinod Tomar), two have not supported the case of the prosecution, and they stated that they were forced/pressured to give their statement at the instance of PW 5 and PW 10. Nothing has been proved by the prosecution which shows that these two victims did not support the case of the prosecution due to any overt act attributable to the accused persons,” the court categorically stated. 

The judge further noted that the striking similarity in the allegations, made at the same time and associated with a common place, was “indicative of prior planning and tutoring”.

A major factor in the acquittal was the court’s finding of “material contradictions” and “substantial improvements” in the testimony of primary complainants. The court highlighted a fundamental discrepancy where one of the protected witnesses initially claimed an incident occurred in Turkey in 2015, only to later state it happened in Mongolia in 2016.

The judge remarked that the “allegations appear to be imperfect to be true, seem rehearsed and well-practiced as well as planted”. 

Regarding an alleged incident at Siri Fort Stadium, the court found it “not the natural conduct” for witnesses to watch a victim suffer in full public view without intervention.

“…the least they could have done was to get her out of that situation or confronted the accused,” stated the court.

Advocates Rajiv Mohan, Rishabh Bhati and Rehan Khan appeared for Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, while the women wrestlers were represented by senior advocate Rebecca John.

‘Tutored witnesses’

The prosecution’s case was further weakened when two complainants (PW-7 and PW-8) turned hostile. For instance, when asked directly by the court if Singh had committed any act of sexual harassment, PW-7 answered in the negative, stating, “Brij Bhushan ne mere saath aisa kuch nahin kiya.” (Brij Bhushan did nothing like this to me)

These witnesses testified that they were pressured by other complainants and coaches to falsely implicate Singh. They said they were told that “without lodging the FIR, it is impossible to remove accused Brij Bhushan” and that his new trial procedures would finish their careers. 

The court observed that these witnesses were “tutored and it was ensured that whatever both of them were to say, the same was said in presence of [others] and the like-minded”.

The court also found the subsequent conduct of the complainants to be “materially inconsistent with the prosecution’s case”.

According to the court, evidence on record showed that the complainants maintained cordial relations with Singh long after the alleged incidents. Specifically, a protected witness and her husband visited Singh’s residence to seek his blessings after their marriage in 2018, which the court deemed “unnatural” post-incident conduct.

The judge concluded that the cumulative effect of the shifting dates, absence of contemporaneous complaints, and lack of independent witnesses created a reasonable doubt. Consequently, Brij Bhushanwas acquitted of charges under Sections 354, 354A, and 506 (Part-I) of the IPC. Co-accused Vinod Tomar, too, also cleared of all charges.

(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)