KOLKATA: On a day the wrestlers took out a candlelight march in New Delhi, demanding the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Sports Authority of India (SAI) suspended Mrinal Basumatary, in-charge of the SAI Training Centre (STC), Solal Gaon, Assam, for sexually harassing women athletes.
"Acting on our zero-tolerance policy towards sexual harassment, SAI has taken cognisance of a case of sexual harassment at the SAI Training centre in Assam's Solal Gaon and has suspended the coach in question with immediate basis," SAI said in a statement.
The local police also transferred the case to North Lakhimpur police station for action against Basumatary, who also happens to be the swimming coach at the SAI centre.
It was a woman weightlifting coach, who made the first complaint to Satyajit Sankrit, the executive director of SAI Regional Centre, Guwahati, and it was then the athletes came forward and filed their complaints.
SAI on its part wasted no time to file a police complaint against the coach, and also referred the matter to the internal committee of the regional centre where they started proceedings in quick time.
The athletes, including minors, all belonged to STC, Solal Gaon, and they had come to SAI Regional Centre New Fields Sports Complex, Paltan Bazar, Guwhati to take part in selection trials for National School Games.
