Vinesh Phogat led accusations against the WFI President Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh ©Getty Images

The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Annual General Meeting has been called off after the Ministry for Youth Affairs and Sports requested the organisation "suspend all activities" in the wake of an ongoing sexual harassment investigation against its President, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh.

WFI assistant secretary Vinod Tomar has also been suspended "with immediate effect, to ensure proper functioning of WFI", according to the Sports Ministry.

"The Ministry has taken note of the reports about the functioning of the WFI, including the role of Shri Vinod Tomar and, has the reasons to believe that his continued presence will be detrimental to the development of this high-priority discipline," read the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports statement.

Tomar has been accused by the wrestlers of taking bribes.

The assistant secretary said the allegations were "baseless".

The AGM was set to take place in Ayodhya.

Due to the suspension of WFI activities, the Open National Senior Ranking Tournament in Gonda has been cancelled by the Ministry too.

It is expected the Sports Ministry's oversight committee will run the WFI and wrestling operations in India until the investigation ends.

Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's suspension has led to the cancellation of the WFI AGM ©Getty Images
Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh's suspension has led to the cancellation of the WFI AGM ©Getty Images

Singh was asked to step down by Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Anurag Thakur due to accusations made by three-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist Vinesh Phogat, who claims the head of Indian wrestling has sexually harassed several women in the national set-up.

She - and other national team members such as Tokyo 2020 medallists Bajrang Punia and Ravi Dahiya, as well as the country's first female wrestling Olympic medallist Sakshi Malik - staged a protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, calling for the removal of Singh as President and a group to be formed to investigate the allegations.

The Indian Olympic Association confirmed they would conduct its own probe, with the Ministry following in its steps soon after, confirming the members of its committee today.

Despite calls for him to stand down from his role, Singh did attend the wrestling event yesterday before the rest of the competition was called off.

Thakur met with Phogat, Malik, Punia and Dahiya for four hours to discuss their protest, eventually leading to the suspension of Singh - who is a fellow Member of Parliament and Bharatiya Janata Party colleague of Thakur.

Singh had been expected to host a press conference, but has postponed this twice.