Wrestlers Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia deny reports of withdrawing from protest

The ongoing wrestlers protest took a dramatic turn on Monday after wrestlers Sakshi Malik, Bajrang Punia and Vinesh Phogat announced they will be rejoining their government duties.However Sakshi and Bajrang in separate social media posts clarified that they are not withdrawing the protest and that their fight for justice will continue.

This news is completely wrong. In the fight for justice, none of us has backed down, nor will we. Along with Satyagraha, I am fulfilling my responsibility in Railways. Our fight continues till justice is served. Please don't spread any wrong news,” Malik tweeted sharing a screenshot of a news report from a news channel.The news of withdrawing the movement is just a rumour. These news are being spread to harm us. We have neither retreated nor have we withdrawn the movement. The news of women wrestlers raising FIR is also false. The fight will continue till justice is served," Punia tweeted.

The meeting with the Home Minister was held days after the country's top wrestlers, including Sakshi Malik, Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia, reached Har ki Pauri to immerse their medals in the Ganga river as part of the protest against the former WFI chief. However, the protesting wrestlers relented after khap and farmer leaders sought five days' time to address their grievances.Sakshi, bronze medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, had said in a statement on her Twitter handle that the wrestlers will go to Haridwar to immerse the medals. "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 of living, so we will sit on a hunger strike until death at India Gate," she had said.  Some of the complainants also alleged that Singh made advances to seek "sexual favours", promising to help them in their careers.Singh has denied all the charges and said he will hang himself even if a single allegation is proved against him.