Sakshi Malik reveals sexual harassment ordeal in memoir

Rio Olympics bronze medallist Sakshi Malik in her memoir 'Witness' has revealed how former Wrestling Federation of India president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh molested her. Sakshi along with wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia launched a massive protest against Brij Bhushan in 2023 which led to the politician's ouster from the WFI.

In the book that has been published recently, Malik says she was only 19 when Brij Bhushan tried to molest her in his hotel room. This was after Sakshi won gold at the 2012 Asian Junior Championship at Kazakhstan's Almaty. She was taken to Brij Bhushan's room on the pretext of speaking to her parents who were on call with the former BJP MP.

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"Singh connected me to my parents. It seemed harmless. When I spoke to them telling them about my match and my medal, I remember thinking that perhaps nothing unsavoury might happen after all. But right after I ended the call, he tried to molest me while I was seated on his bed. I pushed him off and started to cry," Sakshi has written in her book, as per the Times of India.

"He stepped back after that. I think he realised that I wasn't going to go along with what he wanted. He started saying that he had put his arms around me 'papa jaise' (as a father would). But I knew that was not what it was. I ran out of his room all the way back to mine, weeping."

Malik also shared that she was also molested in her childhood by a tuition teacher.

"I had been molested in my childhood too, but for a long time I could not tell my family about it as I thought it was my fault. My tuition teacher used to harass me. He would call me over to his place for classes at odd times and sometimes tried to touch me. I was scared to go for my tuition classes but I could never tell my mom. This continued for a long time and I kept quiet about it," she mentioned.