New Delhi: Wrestler Geeta Phogat claimed on Thursday that said she and her husband Pawan Saroha have been arrested by Delhi Police.
“Me and my husband Pawan Saroha have been arrested by the Delhi Police. Very sad,” Geeta said in one of her multiple tweets.
Geeta, India’s first female Commonwealth Games gold-medallist and Olympian, said she had been stopped from visiting Jantar Mantar where wrestlers Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and others have been protesting at Jantar Mantar for nearly a fortnight to highlight sexual assault claims against Wrestling Federation of India chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.
Geeta posted a series of tweets, including a short video clip of her surrounded by Delhi Police personnel, in which she criticised the ‘abritrariness’ of cops.
दिल्ली पुलिस की मनमानी
मुझे जंतर- मंतर पर मेरे भाई-बहनों से मिलने जाने के लिए भी रोक दिया गया
पुलिस कह रही है की दो ही रास्ते हैं या तो अपने घर वापिस जाओ या फिर पुलिस के घर चलोबेहद निंदनीय pic.twitter.com/yKbUT3LOwq
— geeta phogat (@geeta_phogat) May 4, 2023
“I was also stopped from visiting my siblings at Jantar Mantar. Police (are) saying there are only two ways — either go back to your home or go to the police (station). Highly condemnable,” she tweeted in Hindi.
The police, however, said Geeta and Pawan have not been arrested, but taken into preventive custody.
The wrestlers, who have been demanding the arrest of Brij Sharan, reportedly got involved in a clash with police personnel stationed at the protest site last night.
The wrestlers accused ‘drunk’ police personnel of misbehaviour. Police later denied the charge and said no officer was under the influence of alcohol and blamed the fracas on unidentified people at the site.