Mahavir Prasad Bishnoi, a coach, has denied allegations that he threatened wrestlers and their families on behalf of the Wrestling Federation of India chief, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh. Wrestlers Vinesh Phogat and Bajrang Punia claimed that Bishnoi and the secretary general of Haryana wrestling association, Rakesh, not only threatened the victims but also offered them bribes to keep quiet. Bishnoi has said that he is ready to be hanged if it is proved that he is guilty of making threat calls. He also denied knowing who the victims are and said that he was in Hisar for a wedding when the protest began.

Bishnoi said that he has no ill intentions towards anyone and that he is being dragged into this because he chose not to stand by the wrestlers’ side at the protest site. He said that he quit his job at CISF purely for his passion for wrestling and joined the National Camp to help prepare the wrestlers. He had delivered results as Greco Roman coach at National Centre of Excellence (NCOE) at SAI centre in Sonepat. SAI recently called Bishnoi for the national camp, but a day after he joined the centre in Sonepat, he was asked to leave.

Bishnoi said that he felt humiliated after being asked to leave the national camp. He said in the past also “a few jealous” people targeted him and accused him of sexual harassment but he came out clean in the internal CISF enquiry.