Vinesh returns the Khel Ratna and Arjuna Awards and leaves them at Kartavya Path

On Tuesday, the Asian Games gold medalist had decided to return her Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award to the government.

New Delhi: Multiple World Cup medalist Vinesh Phogat on Saturday returned her Khel Ratna and Arjuna awards, with the two awards left lying in the middle of the national capital’s Kartavya Path after Delhi Police stopped her from reaching the Prime Minister’s office.

On Tuesday, the Asian Games gold medalist had decided to return her Khel Ratna and Arjuna Award to the government, saying such awards have become meaningless at a time when wrestlers are struggling to get justice.

Phogat had announced her decision in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. On Saturday, she tried to reach the Prime Minister’s office to return her awards but police prevented her from reaching the PMO.

In protest, she left the awards on the Kartavya Path and they were later collected by the Delhi Police. Phogat, along with Olympic medalists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, had protested against the election of Sanjay Singh, a close associate of the erstwhile Wrestling Federation of

India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who had been accused of sexual harassment by the three known grapplers.

Sakshi had also announced her retirement from wrestling soon after Sanjay Singh’s appointment as WFI chief.

However, the Sports Ministry had later suspended the newly elected panel for not adhering to the provisions of its own Constitution while taking decisions, while asking the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to form an ad hoc panel to look into the matters of manage the sports organization.

In her letter on

Based on the sports ministry’s directive, the IOA on Wednesday constituted a three-member ad hoc committee to manage the day-to-day affairs of the WFI.