24 December,2023 07:11 AM IST | Bangalore | PTI
Bajrang Punia and Anurag Thakur
Sports Minister Anurag Thakur on Saturday refused to involve himself in the boiling controversy over wrestler Bajrang Punia returning his Padma Shri in protest against the election of Sanjay Singh, a Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh loyalist, as the president of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI).
Olympic medallist Punia had reached the Kartavya Path in New Delhi on Friday to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hand over a protest letter but kept the Padma Shri medallion on a footpath there being blocked by the policemen.
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"I have already spoken enough. No more comments," said Thakur here at the SAI centre on the sidelines of a function to honour eminent athletes and Asian Games medal winners.
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Meanwhile, deaflympics gold medallist Virender Singh Yadav, better known as Goonga Pehlwan, has now decided to return his Padma Shri to the government, showing solidarity with the country's top wrestlers who have objected to election of Sanjay Singh as WFI president.
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