NEW DELHI: Delhi Police on Friday registered two separate FIRs against Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh on complaints of sexual harassment levelled by some female wrestlers, including a minor. “Two FIRs have been registered at Connaught Place police station. The first one pertains to allegations levelled by a minor victim which is registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act along with sections concerning outraging of modesty etc,” DCP (New Delhi) Pranav Tayal said. The second FIR, Tayal said, was registered to carry out a comprehensive investigation into the allegations by the adult complainants under the relevant sections.

Earlier in the day, on Friday itself against Singh. The WFI president was accused of sexual harassment by seven national-level women wrestlers in their April 21 complaint to police before they started a sit-in protest  and then moved court. The SC ordered the Delhi Police commissioner to provide security to the complainants based on threat assessment.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta informed a bench of CJI D Y Chandrachud and and Justice P S Narasimha, “The FIR will be registered today. The petition does not survive for further adjudication.”

The wrestlers’ counsel Kapil Sibal shared a sealed cover with the court claiming that a minor athlete, who had also filed a sexual harassment complaint against the WFI president, was forced to go underground because of threats.

‘Investigations by local police will not suffice’ “Safety and security of these wrestlers is the priority. Second, investigations by local police will not suffice as the accused faces 40 more FIRs including one in a murder case. That is worrying. The investigations can be entrusted to a special task force monitored by the court,” Sibal said.

The SG said, “Let this aspect be left to the Delhi Police commissioner.” The bench recorded the SG’s statement on registration of FIR and said, “The commissioner of Delhi Police will make an independent assessment of the threat perception to the complainant wrestlers, including the minor girl, and provide them with requisite security.” It ordered listing of the petition on Friday for a report on the security given to wrestlers.

Objecting to keeping the petition pending, the SG said there could not be two courts, one jurisdictional court and the SC monitoring the investigation. The CJI-led bench said, “We are not passing any order relating to the constitution of STF. Let us see on Friday how the investigation proceeds.”

The SG said he was not objecting to the SC keeping the petition pending but expressed apprehension that “there is something else that is brewing”. “They have prayed for registration of FIR, which we are doing. But there is also a process for registration of FIRs. Just because some people are in Delhi, they can come to the SC directly without following the procedure prescribed in Criminal Procedure Code. What about the vast multitude of people in other parts of the country who cannot approach the SC?” he asked.

Sibal said the alleged sexual harassment was happening since 2016 and a complaint was made orally. In January, the wrestlers complained in writing, a committee was set up, but no one knew what the report said, and ministry and the Indian Olympic Association did nothing. He added that under the law, an FIR should have been lodged which would not have forced the wrestlers to approach the SC.

Slamming the committee for purportedly giving a clean chit to the accused, they demanded that the committee’s report be made public.

The Delhi Police on Friday registered two FIRs over allegations of sexual harassment and exploitation of female wrestlers alllegedly by Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

This comes six days after the star wrestlers started protesting against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president.

Delhi DCP Pranav Tayal told ANI that two FIRs have been registered based on the complaints of female wrestlers.

“Two FIRs registered in Connaught Place Police Station over the complaints by female wrestlers against WFI chief Brij Brijbhushan Sharan Singh,” DCP said.

The first FIR pertains to allegations levelled by a minor victim, registered under POCSO Act along with relevant IPC sections concerning outraging of modesty.

The second FIR is registered for carrying out comprehensive investigations into the complaints tendered by other, adult complainants under relevant sections pertaining to outraging of modesty, he said.

This comes after the Delhi Police on Friday, apprised the Supreme Court that it will register an FIR by Friday evening based on the allegations levelled by wrestlers against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court issued notice to Delhi Police on the wrestler’s plea seeking an urgent hearing on a petition seeking registration of FIR against WFI president Brij Bhushan. The court noted that there are serious allegations in the petition by wrestlers who have represented India.

Top wrestlers have resumed their sit-in protest at Jantar Mantar here in the national capital after filing a complaint at the Connaught Place police station on Friday stating that seven female wrestlers, including one minor, were harassed and exploited by Brij Bhushan in his capacity as WFI chief.

Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist wrestler Bajrang Punia and star wrestlers like Vinesh Phogat and Sakshi Malik on Friday said that they will continue their protest against Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh until he is sent behind bars.

Top Indian grapplers such as Vinesh Phogat, Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia, and many other wrestlers are involved in the protest against the WFI chief.

Over the last four days, the wrestlers have slept and trained at the protest site, near the Jantar Mantar in the national capital.

On Wednesday, the grapplers held a candlelight march at Jantar Mantar against the WFI president. Vinesh Phoghat, Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik were present in the march. 

Delhi has managed to slow down the spread of coronavirus for now, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said today, citing figures that fall short of predictions for June. In place of the predicted 60,000 active cases by the end of June, Delhi has only around 26,000, he said. the number of cases detected each day, has also gone down from last week -- around 2,500 a day instead of the close to 4,000.

With 87,000 cases, the national capital, which is the third worst-hit state in the country after Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, is still short of the 1 lakh cases the experts had predicted at the beginning of last month.

Over the last 24 hours, 2,199 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Delhi, taking the total to 87,360. The number of fatalities has gone up to 2,742 with 62 more deaths reported in a single day. There are 26,270 active cases.

The daily hike in cases has seen a downward trend in the last one week.

Mr Kejriwal said testing, which has been increased, also indicates a slowdown of the virus.

"We have increased the number of tests. There is a good indication... Earlier around 31 out of 100 people whose samples were collected tested positive for Coronavirus. Today, 13 out of 100 people test positive," Mr Kejriwal said.

The recovery rate in Delhi has improved from 60 per cent to 66 per cent. The national recovery rate is 59 per cent. The death rate has remained around 3 per cent.

Testing has been increasing and has remained between 16,000 and 21,000 in the last week.

In the beginning of June, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had said Delhi will have 1 lakh coronavirus cases by the end of the month and 5.5 lakh cases by the end of July. On basis of the estimate, the number of beds were increased, with public and private participation.

The Centre chipped in with 500 railway coaches which were converted into COVID-19 facilities.

Swarms of crop-destroying desert locusts have reached the outskirts of Delhi after entering Gurugram this morning. Multiple videos shot by residents of Gurugram city and villages in the district this morning show massive clusters of locusts flying in.

Thousands of locusts were seen covering the sky near the Cyber Hub area of Gurugram.

The Haryana government has issued a high alert after locusts entered Rewari and Gurugram districts, with officials saying that all necessary measures have been taken, including deploying tractor-mounted spraying facilities, according to news agency PTI.

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai has called an emergency meeting to discuss the situation following a locust attack in neighbouring Gurugram, according to PTI. The minister also directed the administration to be alert, an official said.

Gurugram residents were last evening asked to keep their windows shut as precaution against a locust attack by the city administration as a swarm was sighted in an adjoining district.

The administration has asked residents to make clanging noises by beating utensils to ward the insects off.

"The swarm of locusts started around 11:00am. We immediately closed the windows and doors, and the society administration started bellowing hooters installed on buildings to drive away the insects," says Rita Sharma, a resident of Beverly Park 2 at MG Road in Gurugram.

"Farmers must also keep their pumps (for insecticide spray) ready so that they can be used when needed," the Gurugram administration had said.

The administration has asked employees of agriculture department to spread awareness on locusts in villages.

The Delhi Air Traffic Control has directed pilots of all airlines to take necessary precautions during landing and take-off of aircraft in view of locust swarms seen near the airport in areas along Gurugram-Dwarka Expressway, according to news agency ANI.

Massive swarms of desert locusts have been destroying crops in many parts of western and central India, spearing into Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab now, after Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.

The central government has set up 11 control rooms to coordinate the response.

Last month, Haryana Chief Secretary Keshni Anand Arora had directed the Agriculture department and district administrations to take all necessary precautions in advance to tackle any potential attack of locust swarms in the state.

Locusts form swarms in Africa and fly from Iran, Pakistan to India. They are known to have an enormous appetite. They eat plants and can wreck massive damage to crops in days if left unchecked.

Tamil Nadu government has announced "maximised restricted lockdown" in parts of the state. The maximised lockdown would take place from June 19 to June 30 in areas of Chennai, Kanchipuram, Chengalpattu and Tiruvallur district -- all within the limits of Metropolitan Chennai Police.

CM Edappadi K Palaniswami said in his announcement that vegetable stores in these areas would be allowed to remain open from 8am to 2pm. This move comes after the Tamil Nadu government held consultative meetings with experts and senior officials on Monday.

Senior epidemiologist and member of the 19-member expert committee on coronavirus, Dr P Kuganantham said that the panel advised the government to cut down relaxations to prevent the spread of the virus.

Palaniswami said that there was no community transmission in Tamil Nadu and that the pandemic has been brought under control in most districts. However, capital city Chennai has been most affected in the state.

Tamil Nadu has 44,661 cases of coronavirus and is one of the most severely-affected states in the country. It has 19,679 active cases, 24,547 discharges and 435 deaths.

Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to meet the chief ministers of all states and UTs in two batches on Tuesday and Wednesday. He will meet CM Palaniswami through video conferencing on Wednesday. On the same day, he would meet the CMs of Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Telangana, and Odisha as well.