‘Was sitting on his bed’: Sakshi Malik on sexual harassment by Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh

Indian wrestler Sakshi Malik, a medalist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, has unfolded some of the most heartbreaking chapters of her career in her memoir, Witness. Malik, who quit the sport a few months ago, made an explosive claim accusing former Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexual harassment. In her autobiography, the wrestler spoke about an incident during the 2012 Asian Junior Championship in Almaty (Kazakhstan), where the then wrestling body chief Brij Bhushan tried to sexually harass her in his hotel room.

A report in the Times of India, which highlighted excerpts from her book, stated that she was sent to Brij Bushan’s hotel room on the pretext of speaking to her parents on the phone. But what happened later became one of the most traumatic incidents of her life.

“Singh put me in touch with my parents. It seemed innocent. When I talked to them about my competition and my medal, I remember thinking that maybe nothing untoward would happen after all. But immediately after I ended the conversation, he tried to bother me while I was sitting on his bed, I pushed him away and started crying.”

Sakshi further claimed, “He took a step back after that. I think he realized that I wasn’t going to go along with what he wanted. He started saying that he had put his arms ‘papa jaise’ around me (as a father would But I knew it wasn’t so. I ran out of his room crying, all the way back to mine.’

It is not the first time in her life that the wrestler has faced such sexual trauma. She recounted another incident from her childhood where one of her teachers touched her inappropriately.

“I was also molested in my childhood, but I couldn’t tell my family for a long time because I thought it was my fault. My teacher molested me. He would call me to his house for lessons at odd times and try to sometimes, I was afraid to go to school, but I could never tell my mother. This lasted for a long time and I kept quiet about it,” she wrote in the book.

“My mother supported me not only during the incident with the teacher but also when Singh started chasing me. I tried to forget what happened in Almaty. That’s what my parents advised me too. They told me to focus on my life. training and competition It doesn’t seem like much today, but I was grateful that I could at least continue training.”