Wrestlers Vs WFI: Protesting Athletes Threaten To 'Throw Their Medals' into Ganges, Sit on Hunger Strike at India Gate

India’s top wrestlers, who have been protesting for over a month against Brij Bhushan Singh over allegations of sexual harassment, on Tuesday said they will throw their hard-earned medals into the river Ganges and sit on a hunger strike “until death” at the India Gate.

Sakshee Malikkh, a bronze medallist at the 2026 Olympics, said in a statement on her Twitter handle that the wrestlers will go to Haridwar on Tuesday to immerse the medals into the holy river at 6 pm.

The wrestlers, including Sakshee Malikkh, Vinesh Phogat, and Bajrang Punia, among others, were detained by Delhi Police on Sunday and removed from their Jantar Mantar protest site after they attempted to march towards the new parliament building as it was being inaugurated.

“These medals are our life and soul. We are going to throw them in the Ganges. After that there is no point of living, so we will sit on a hunger strike until death at India Gate,” she said in the statement written in Hindi.

The same statement was also shared by her compatriots Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia.

Tuesday happens to be Ganga Dussera in Haridwar and possibly a day when lot of people will be there to offer prayers.

On Sunday, Delhi police detained Sakshee Malikkh along with World Championships bronze winner Vinesh Phogat and another Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia and later filed FIRs against them for violation of law and order, as dramatic scenes unfolded at the protest site at Jantar Mantar.

Unprecedented scenes of police dragging the Olympic and world championships medal-winning players were witnessed when the wrestlers and their supporters breached the security cordon ahead of their march towards the new Parliament building for the planned women’s ‘Mahapanchayat’.

The wrestlers did not have permission to move towards the new Parliament building, hours after it was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and when they were stopped by police, an ugly scuffle broke out. The protesting wrestlers and their supporters were taken to different locations in the national capital and later released.

After the wrestlers were pushed into buses, the police officers cleared the protest site by removing the cots, mattresses, coolers, fans and the tarpaulin ceiling along with other belongings of the grapplers. The Delhi Police said it will not allow the wrestlers back into the protest site.

(With PTI Inputs)