Sports Ministry suspends WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar

New Delhi: The Sports Ministry on Saturday suspended Wrestling Federation of India's (WFI) assistant secretary Vinod Tomar, a fallout of the grapplers' allegations of sexual harassment and corruption against the sports body's chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

The ministry also cancelled the Open championship, which was to begin in Sharan's UP stronghold of Gonda.

Sources in the ministry said Tomar's presence will be "detrimental to the development of this high-priority discipline".

Sources also said that the soon-to-be-formed oversight committee of the ministry will have the powers to take all decisions on matters concerning Indian wrestling.

At the end of a marathon meeting late on Friday night, Sports Minister Anurag Thakur said that the government decided to form an oversight committee to probe the charges levelled by some of the country's top wrestlers, including Vinesh Phogat, Bajrang Punia, Sakshi Malik and Ravi Dahiya, against Sharan and his body.