Delhi court directs Bajrang to appear in defamation case

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New Delhi, August 3

A local court in New Delhi has summoned Olympics bronze medallist wrestler Bajrang Punia in a defamation case. Metropolitan magistrate Yashdeep Chahal has summoned Bajrang as an accused on September 6 in a complaint filed by wrestling coach Naresh Dahiya.

In his plea, Dahiya stated that Bajrang had made defamatory remarks during a press conference on May 10 at Jantar Mantar wherein he accused Dahiya of being involved in a rape case in the Tis Hazari Court when in fact he was acquitted in 2019.

Dahiya’s counsel further said that the alleged statement was made to discredit the coach as he was supporting the outgoing WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh in the sexual harassment complaint made by several women wrestlers. As a result, a lot of Dahiya’s trainees left his akhada.

“It appears that the statement made in the press conference was a result of malicious intent and was not made in good faith. In view of the same, let accused, namely, Bajrang Punia be summoned,” the order said.

Bajrang, Vinesh return

Meanwhile, Bajrang and Vinesh Phogat have returned from their training camps. While Vinesh, who pulled out of the ranking series in Bishkek last month, completed her training stint in Budapest, Bajrang came back from Kyrgyzstan a few days earlier to help out Anita Sheoran in her quest to become the WFI president.