Every male sportsperson in authority is prone to sexual harassment allegations: Brij Bhushan in court

 Every male sportsperson in authority is prone to sexual harassment allegations: Brij Bhushan in court

Representing Bhushan, Senior Advocate Rajiv Mohan, during arguments on charges against former WFI Chief Singh at the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Priyanka Rajpoot, asked if the trial can be simply started “on the basis of whatever documents the prosecution submits”.

Insisting that the sexual harassment allegations by six women wrestlers against him were false, BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh argued in court Friday that male authority figures in sports had become “very prone to” sexual assault allegations.

Representing Bhushan, Senior Advocate Rajiv Mohan, during arguments on charges against former WFI Chief Singh at the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Priyanka Rajpoot, asked if the trial can be simply started “on the basis of whatever documents the prosecution submits”.

Mohan argued that the prosecution will have to explain under what provisions the complaints of the six wrestlers were clubbed into a single FIR since there was “no link” between the alleged incidents.

Reading out the complaints of one of the wrestlers, Mohan alleged that there was no reason given for the delay in filing her complaint other than the fact that she was “worried about her career”.

Mohan further said some of the cases mentioned by wrestlers were outside the territorial jurisdiction of the Delhi court, and that cases that occurred outside India cannot be tried by the court without a sanction from the Central government.

It was also argued that for offences committed in a different state within India, the court can only proceed if the offence is a “continuing” one.

“All the incidents are separate from each other…the offence in this case is not a continuous one…sanctions under Section 188 of the CrPC will be needed,” added Mohan.

The court will now hear further arguments on February 6 and 7. While the six wrestlers were represented by Senior Advocate Rebecca John, Bhushan was represented by Advocates Rajiv Mohan, Rehan Khan, and Rishabh Bhati.