Top wrestler quits sport after Indian Wrestling Federation replaces powerful president accused of sexual abuse with his close ally.

A top Indian wrestler has announced she will quit the sport in protest after the country’s wrestling federation replaced an accused president sexual abuse Female athletes with his close ally.

Sakshi Malik, a celebrated wrestler who won a bronze medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics and led protests against Brij Bhushan Singh, the former head of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), announced her resignation on Thursday.

“We slept on the streets for 40 days and many people from different parts of the country came to support us,” Malik, 31, said at a news conference in New Delhi, referring to protests earlier this year.

“If business partner and close confidant of Brij Bhushan Singh is elected as president of WFI, I will quit wrestling,” she said before leaving the conference with tears in her eyes.

VIDEO | “We have gathered a lot of courage for this fight against the WFI president (Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh). But today his right-hand man (meaning Sanjay Singh) was elected as the new WFI president. We had demanded that a woman be appointed president.” President, but that wasn’t… pic.twitter.com/UMwOMRnnNI

— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) December 21, 2023

Malik became a loud voice against harassment and discrimination that female athletes face in India, a plight underscored by charges filed against Singh in June, accusing him of sexually assaulting six female wrestlers, including a minor, during his time at the helm of the WFI.

Singh, who is also a six-time parliamentarian and a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), denied any wrongdoing and dramatically declared at the time that he would hang himself if the allegations were proven true.

Asked about Malik’s decision to quit, Singh, 66, said on Thursday: “I have nothing to do with it.”

Singh was relieved of his administrative duties in January and the government promised to investigate the allegations. But Malik and other athletes renewed their protests in April after the government refused to disclose the findings of a panel investigating the incidents.

In recent months, Singh has been actively lobbying for Sanjay Singh to replace him, predicting his victory to the local press.

On Thursday, the WFI voted to replace Brij Bhushan Singh with Sanjay Singh, who defeated Anita Sheoran, another presidential candidate who won a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and supported the athletes’ campaign to draw attention to the allegations abuse.

“It is a very big victory of truth over lies,” Sanjay Singh told mediapersons after securing 40 out of 47 votes from the member institutions of the federation. He told reporters that he was committed to supporting wrestlers but did not comment on Malik’s announcement.

The United World Wrestling (UWW), the global wrestling organization that exposed The Indian federation, which condemned the wrestlers’ protest in August, has not yet commented on the election.