BB became WFI president in April 2012 — the same year Geeta qualified for London and Vinesh was rising through national ranks. For 11 years, every national team spot, camp invitation, and international assignment for all four wrestlers passed through his hands. This is how the harassment was structurally enabled. Refusal carried the threat of career destruction.

Geeta said she knew since 2012. Vinesh told PM Modi post-Tokyo 2021. For a decade, knowledge of the abuse circulated privately while all of them continued competing under BB’s WFI. Fear of losing a career kept the silence intact for ten years.

BB’s flagship college (Nandini Nagar Mahavidyalaya, Nawabganj, Gonda) hosted senior national ranking wrestling tournaments throughout his WFI tenure. Wrestlers including Geeta, Vinesh, and Sakshi competed at events physically held on BB’s property. He would often inaugurate them.

Even after 2023 FIRs, Vinesh competed at the National Open Ranking Tournament in Gonda in early 2026 — the same campus. The man whose show-cause notice called her a national embarrassment had his tournament on his own grounds. The sport and the accused shared the same physical space across two decades.

Babita Phogat is Geeta’s sister, Vinesh’s cousin, and a BJP MLA. Brij Bhushan is a BJP MP. Sakshi alleges Babita encouraged the protest to oust BB and take his WFI seat — using her own party colleague’s victims as leverage for internal BJP positioning.

This puts Geeta in a structurally impossible position: her sister (BJP) versus her cousin (Congress, post-protest), all circling a case against a fellow BJP MP. Geeta has remained neutral. She is the only Phogat who has not aligned with either party — possibly the most politically intelligent position in the entire story. But it also means the person who could answer the Babita question on record has chosen not to. That interview does not exist.

Vinesh tore her knee during the protest period — sleeping on pavements 40 days, physically detained May 28, 2023. She underwent surgery June 2023. While she recovered, Antim Panghal won India’s 53kg Olympic quota at the World Championships in September 2023. Without the 53kg quota, Vinesh cut from 60kg to 50kg over seven months — 3kg below her natural body weight.

Three Olympic bouts on August 6 left her body at 52.7kg by nightfall. Staff cut her hair and drew blood overnight. At 6am August 7: 50.1kg. 100 grams. Disqualified. Hospitalised. The protest that was supposed to protect women wrestlers’ bodies from institutional abuse directly caused the physical conditions that led to the most devastating moment in Indian women’s sport.

Dangal (2016) built its entire dramatic argument on this: the institution forces Geeta to cut below her natural weight class. That’s wrong. The father who insists on natural weight wins. India gets gold. The film grossed Rs 2,000 crore and gave the Phogat name national cultural capital.

Eight years later, the protest’s most visible face was forced 3kg below her natural weight by institutional category management, lost the gold, was called a national embarrassment, and then had her pregnancy used to exclude her from the Asian Games. The Delhi HC had to intervene. The Dangal narrative gave the Phogats the cultural standing to lead a protest. The same institution the film said they could beat has beaten back the most visible Phogat three times in three years.

June 15, 2023: Delhi Police filed a POCSO FIR based on a minor wrestler’s complaint. The father originally filed a specific complaint. Then gave a second statement under Section 164 CrPC saying the complaint was “filed out of anger” and was “false.” Delhi Police filed a cancellation report. Court accepted it May 26, 2025.

BB’s sons celebrated: “Decisive victory of justice and truth.” No major outlet has asked the family what changed between the first statement and the second. In POCSO cases, witness intimidation and retraction under pressure are documented patterns. The adult harassment case by five women wrestlers is still active. Their identities are protected. Their post-2023 careers have not been tracked by any outlet.

Vinesh gave birth July 2025. ITA cleared her January 2026. On February 25, 2026, WFI issued a selection policy that restricted eligibility to medal winners from tournaments held in 2025 and 2026 — precisely the period of her pregnancy and recovery. She was declared ineligible. WFI issued a show-cause notice calling Paris a “national embarrassment.” Delhi HC called that “deplorable.” WFI went to the Supreme Court to block her. SC refused: “She has made the country proud.”

She arrived at IG Stadium May 30, 2026. WFI handed her a notice: 50kg only. She weighs 53.9kg. The Paris weight trap, rerun on a single morning. She fought it. WFI backed down. She competed at 53kg. Lost semifinal 4-6. Left saying: “Main waapis aungi.” The same weight-category control tactic — Paris was the 50kg category loss, May 30 was the 50kg-only morning notice — used twice. Her body, again, the battlefield.