Country's top wrestlers, including Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, on Tuesday drove to the holy town of Haridwar in Uttar Pradesh to immerse their medals in Ganga river to intensify their protest against Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh but an intervention by a senior farmer's leader prompted them to postpone their plans for the time being.
Bharatiya Kisan Union's Naresh Tikait collected the World and Olympic medals from the wrestlers protesting against Wrestling Federation of India chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is facing sexual harassment allegations, and sought five days time before taking the next step.
The wrestlers had reached Har ki Pauri in Haridwar to immerse the medals where a large crowd had gathered. Sakshi, Vinesh and Sangeeta, another wrestler and cousin of Vinesh, were seen sobbing.
As a mark of their protest, wrestlers first stood in silence at the Har ki Pauri for about 20 minutes. Later, they sat on the banks of the river holding the medals and citations.
The wrestlers got support from former cricketer Anil Kumble, who tweeted, "dismayed to hear about what transpired on the 28th of May with our wrestlers being manhandled. Anything can be resolved through proper dialogue. Hoping for a resolution at the earliest."
The wrestlers have taken their protest to the holy town after police detained them while trying to march to Parliament on Sunday to hold a 'Mahila Maha Panchayat'. They were not allowed to return to the protest site at Jantar Mantar from where their belongings were also removed.
Earlier in the day, the wrestlers said they would immerse their medals and sit on a fast-unto-death protest at the iconic India Gate. Delhi Police said no protest would be allowed at India Gate, as it is a "national monument and not a site for demonstrations''.
In a statement on Twitter, Sakshi had said, "these medals are our life and soul. We are going to immerse them in the Ganges because she is Maa Ganga. After that, there is no point in living, so we will sit on a hunger strike until death at India Gate." The statement in Hindi was also shared by Vinesh.
"We have won these medals with the same purity as the holy Ganga. These medals are holy for the entire country and there can't be a better place to keep them than in the holy Ganga rather than it acting as a mask for the unholy system which is siding with the wrongdoer," Sakshi said.
"India Gate is the place of those martyrs who sacrificed themselves for the country. We are not as holy as them but our emotions while playing at the international level are similar to those soldiers," she said, adding that the "system kept trying to scare the victims and stop the protest" instead of "catching the harasser".