New Delhi: The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI), on Wednesday, came down heavily on top grapplers for their absence in the national camp and decided to remove 15 of them for breach of discipline.

The issue can snowball into a major controversy as the list includes some top names of Indian wrestling, including the Phogat sisters, Geeta and Babita.

According to WFI sources, the wrestlers were thrown out after they failed to show up for the ongoing national camps in Sonepat and Lucknow despite several reminders. All the wrestlers were showcaused but none came up with satisfactory replies.

This is a huge blow to the wrestlers as they won't be able to appear in the trials for the Jakarta Asian Games, which will be held immediately after the camps. While the men's camp is in Sonepat from May 10 to 25, the women's camp is running simultaneously in Lucknow.

Geeta and Babita, who turned famous after a Hindi movie was made loosely based on their struggle to become women wrestlers, had two of their other sisters, Ritu and Sangeeta, also thrown out of the camp for similar reason.

Geeta became a celebrity with her stunning gold-medal performance in 2010 Commonwealth Games. She also was the first Indian woman to qualify for Olympics in 2012. In 2014, Babita followed her sister by winning the gold medal in CWG.

Neither Ritu nor Sangeeta are mean grapplers - while Sangeeta is considered highly promising, Ritu won a medal in the under-23 World championship.

Among the men wrestlers removed, one of the prominent names is Satyawart Kadian, a gold medal winner in Asian Championship. Married to Rio Olympic bronze medallist Sakshi Malik, Kadian also won a silver medal at the Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

"The WFI is very miffed with the wrestlers," said a wrestling official. "They were told umpteenth times not to skip the camps. They took leave from their respective employers but spent elsewhere. This cannot be tolerated," he said.

Interestingly, two of India's most famous wrestlers, Sushil Kumar and Sakshi Malik, are also not attending the camp but they have not been pulled up for their absence. The federation said both of them took prior permission for not attending the camp.

India did extremely well in 2018 CWG winning five gold, three silver and four bronze medals. The gold medal winners included one from the Phogat family, Vinesh. She bagged the top spot in 50kg freestyle event.