Won’t Stop Them: Haridwar Cops On Immersing Medals

The Haridwar police has said that they will not stop the wrestlers from entering the district or immersing the medals.

The statement comes just hours after the wrestlers said that they will immerse their medals in the Ganga. They have been demanding the arrest of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

Senior superintendent of police, Ajay Singh said that the wrestlers are free to do anything. If they are coming to immerse their medals in the holy Ganga, we will not stop them. I have not received any instructions from my senior either, Singh said.

Singh also said that people do immerse gold and solver in the Ganga and the wrestlers can immerse their medal if they wanted to. About 15 lakh pilgrims visit Haridwar to take a holy dip in the Ganga on the occasion of Ganga Dussehra and wrestlers are welcome too, Singh added.

The wrestlers have been protesting since April 23 demanding the arrest of Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh over allegations of sexual harassment, including a minor. On Sunday the police had detained several them as they began marching towards the new Parliament building.

"These medals are our lives, our souls. There would be no reason to live after immersing them in the Ganga today. So, we will start a hunger strike until death at India Gate after that," the wrestlers had said in a statement in Hindi.

Ganga Sabha president Nitin Gautam said that the authorities had not informed them about the wrestlers coming to Haridwar today. Lakhs of pilgrims are in Haridwar today. We are looking into the management and performance of Ganga Saptami rituals, he said.