WFI chaos: Singh refutes Lochab's claims of being unaware of panel meet

Sanjay Singh, president of the suspended Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) said that Secretary Prem Chand Lochab was informed about the Executive Committee meeting despite the latter's claims of his being unaware of it.

The suspended faction of the WFI on Tuesday held a meeting to discuss the suspension which was imposed by the Union Sports Ministry.

Later in the day, in a letter addressed to the suspended WFI president, Lochab claimed that he didn't receive any official notice about the meeting on the contact details that he provided to the WFI.

However, Sanjay Singh went on to refute Lochab's claim and stated that the WFI secretary was informed about the meeting on time and told ANI, "We called and mailed the WFI secretary Lochab on time and made him aware about the meeting, he used the said mail earlier but now he has declined that the said mail is not used by him, we request him to provide appropriate contact details to the federation so we will connect with him without any issue in future."

In his letter, Lochab also went on to question how a meeting could be conducted after the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports abstained the newly elected WFI body from administrating and managing the day-to-day activities of the federation (WFI).

Meanwhile, in the meeting, the suspended WFI decided that they will seek a dialogue with the Sports Ministry to resolve the issue of suspension of the body and the legal alternatives will be explored only if discussions fail.

"A meeting was called to discuss the suspension and nationals. We will hold the nationals.... Twenty-five federations have taken this decision, we want to give opportunities to the wrestlers. We are going to initiate talks with United World Wrestling (UWW) because when they derecognised us, they had mentioned a clause of not conducting the elections. Now elections are done so will write to UWW," Singh said.

He said they will also approach the Sports Ministry for talks to resolve the issue of suspension of the body.

"Athletes should look at our mandate. Our mandate doesn't accept the ad-hoc committee," he said.

Days after the conclusion of the WFI elections in December last year, the Sports Ministry suspended the body. Sanjay Singh had announced the hosting of the U-15 and U-20 nationals at Nandini Nagar in the Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh by the end of the year.

The Sports Ministry has instructed the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to form an ad-hoc committee to manage and control the affairs of the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).