Sports Ministry suspends newly elected Wrestling Federation of India body

Sports Ministry has suspended the newly-elected Wrestling Federation of India after three days of election on the grounds of violating the National Sports Code on Sunday.

The development came on Sunday morning when the Sports Ministry in an official release announced the decision citing the hasty decision to conduct the the junior national competitions announced on 21st December.

The ministry detailed that this was against the rules and at least a 15-day notice was needed so that the wrestlers could prepare.

Another point raised by the ministry of involvement of the Secretary-General who is the one responsible for carrying out such decisions but he was not involved in the decision-making.

"The new body has not followed the WFI constitution. We have not terminated the Federation but suspended it till further orders. They just need to follow the due process and the rules," a sports ministry official told PTI.

The release by the Sports Ministry read, "The decisions made by the newly elected executive body of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) demonstrate a blatant disregard for the established legal and procedural norms, violating both the WFI's constitutional provisions and the National Sports Development Code."

The WFI elections were held on December 21 with former president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's loyalist, Sanjay Singh, and his panel winning the polls by big margins.

(More details to follow)