Mallakhamb federation's president resigns over sexual harassment charges

Complaint filed by 7 girls, some of them minor, and a male member of the teamNEW DELHI: Ramesh Indoliya, the president of Mallakhamb Federation of India (MFI), and the president of the sport's world governing body, Federation International Mallakhamb (FIM), resigned from his post on Sunday after charges of sexual harassment were levelled against him. The veteran sports administrator quit following a decision by the MFI's special general body meeting (SGBM) here. Indoliya, who hails from Rajasthan, was removed as president after 23 out of 25 state member associations consented for the same at the SGBM. All athletes who have filed the complaint belong to different cities of Rajasthan, a state Indoliya hails from. Seven of the eight complainants are girls. TOI is withholding the identities of athletes since some of them are still minor.

Dr Rajkumar Sharma, a member of the MFI's Internal Complaint Committee (ICC) on sexual harassment, told TOI: "The written complaints were filed in May June this year. All the athletes have filed complaints individually narrating their ordeal. Most of them have talked about Indoliya touching them inappropriately and making them feel uncomfortable with his sexual overtures. No FIR has been registered against him as none of the athletes pursued the matter further." In a letter written by Sharma (dated September 7) to the secretary general Dharam Vir Singh, Sharma informed about Indoliya's arbitrary way of disbanding the committee probing the sexual harassment allegations, which was replaced by Indoliya's own set of people. In his letter, Sharma has named the athletes who have filed the harassment complaint against Indoliya. Mallakhamb is an indigenous discipline which the central government