New Delhi: The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has asked the secretary general of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) to hand over the official documents, including financial instruments to its ad-hoc panel, making it clear the outgoing office-bearers shall have no role in the running of the federation.
The WFI said it has no issues in obeying the IOA order since it was already co-operating with the authorities.
The IOA had formed an ad-hoc committee to manage the day-to-day affairs of the WFI and also conduct due polls of the National Sports Federation (NSF).
The ad-hoc committee was formed by the IOA at the behest of the Sports Ministry after several top wrestlers returned to the protest site at Jantar Mantar here last month, demanding the arrest of WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh for the alleged sexual harassment of women grapplers.
The IOA issued a letter on Friday saying that all administrative, financial and regulatory roles will now be performed by the ad-hoc committee.
"In pursuance of the above (order of the IOA dated May 12, 2023), it is hereby clarified that the ad-hoc Committee appointed by the IOA for the discipline of Wrestling shall carry out all the duties and responsibilities of the National Sports Federation (WFI) as enunciated in the Sports Code.
"With the ad-hoc committee being in existence, the outgoing office-bearers of the WFI shall have no role with respect to the exercise of any function of the NSF for discipline of Wrestling and shall not perform any administrative, financial, regulatory or any other role," said the IOA letter, which has also been marked to the ministry and the WFI secretary general.
It said that the outgoing office-bearers should immediately hand over all necessary documents, including website login and participation details of Indian wrestlers, among others to the ad-hoc committee.
The ad-hoc committee has already finalised the rules and regulations related to conduct the selection trials for picking the Indian teams for the 2023 U-17 and U-23 Asian Wrestling Championships.
The trials will be held at Patiala from Wednesday.
The U-17 an U-23 Asian Championships will be held in Bishkek, Kyrgistan, from June 10-18.
