Sanjay Singh to challenge WFI suspension in court, alleges govt didn't follow 'proper procedure'

Newlyelected WFI president Sanjay Singh on Thursday said that the sports ministry did not follow proper procedure while suspending the wrestling national body and will challenge the governments decision in a courtThe sports ministry on Sunday suspended the WFI three days after its elections were held for flouting its own constitution while taking certain decisions including the announcement of U15 and U20 National ChampionshipsSanjay however said that his autonomous and democratically elected body could not have been suspended by the government without hearing the WFIs side of the storyWe have won the elections of WFI democratically The returning officer was the retired chief justice of JampK High Court there were observers from the IOA and UWW United World Wrestling There were 22 state units three absent out of 25 state associations taking part in the elections 47 votes were polled out of which I got 40 Sanjay told PTIAfter all these if you say we are suspended we are not going to accept it A democraticallyelected body was not given a chance to explain its position which is against the principle of natural justice which everybody is entitled to under the Constitution of IndiaWrestlers vs WFI Bajrang Vinesh and Sakshi playing politicsHe said the visit by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in an akhada in Haryana to meet Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia made it clear that the trio who led the fivemonthlong protest accusing former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexually harassing women grapplers were playing politicsIt is clear that they Bajrang Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik are being backed by the Congress toolkit gang and left parties These three are playing on the lap of these political parties said Sanjay a close aide of Brij BhushanPlease tell me any fourth wrestler who is opposing the WFI other than these three These three dont want the junior wrestlers to progress they want to take away the rights of junior wrestlersBajrang had gone to the Hangzhou Asian Games without taking part in the trials and he came back with 100 loss They are not in wrestling they are in politics Please come forward if you are concerned about wrestling the road is clear for you but if you want to do politics please do it in the openAlso Read Silence is lsquonotrsquo goldenWrestlers vs WFI Hoping that UWW will lift ban on WFISanjay also claimed that he had written a letter to the United World Wrestling requesting lifting of the ban imposed on WFI and he is hopeful of a favourable decision from the international parent bodyWe have written to the UWW requesting to lift the ban imposed on the WFI as the elections were held democratically Office holidays are going on in Europe so may take some daysHe also claimed that the newlyelected office bearers did not violate any constitutional provision of the WFI while announcing dates and venue of the U15 and U20 National Championships in Gonda Brij Bhushans Lok Sabha constituency after the December 21 electionsThere was full quorum when we took the decision to hold the U15 and U20 Nationals There was an AGM on the day of the elections we went to a hotel in Delhi and took the decisionIf the Nationals were not held this year the future of the young wrestlers would have been spoilt which it has happened now They will become overage Everybody agreed to the venue alsoWith agency inputs