Heroin use: NADA collects Vijender Singh's blood samples

New Delhi, April 3: The National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) collected urine and blood samples from Beijing Olympics bronze-medallist

on Wednesday morning, revealed Sports Minister Jitender Singh.

The 27-year-old pugilist came under the scanner when the Punjab Police saw a SUV belonging to his wife Archana during a raid at a NRI drug peddler's flat in Punjab's Fatehgarh Sahib district on March 7. The vehicle was parked outside the apartment of Anoop Singh Kahlon who has described Vijender as a regular client.

Ram Singh, Vijender's sparring partner, said that he took the boxing icon to the Chandigarh airport in the same SUV on March 6. Later he admitted that both of them had experimented with drugs.

Ram Singh claimed that they had mistaken the banned substances for health boosters. "We were told that we were consuming food supplements meant to increase strength and stamina," Ram Singh told newspersons.

He was expelled from the National Institute of Sports in Patiala on March 11. The Punjab Police dismissed the disgraced head constable on March 28.

According to investigators, Vijender has taken heroin at least 12 times till date. However, he denied the charge. Even if it is established that the boxer often consumed heroin, the chances of him being banned for drug use are very less.

"Heroin is a banned drug, but an athlete can be punished only if he tests positive in 'in-competition' testing. Vijender is not training for any competition these days, so he cannot be penalised," NADA director-general Mukul Chatterjee explained.

Despite this, Vijender surprisingly ignored several summons to appear before the police. Though a DSP and an Inspector grilled him on March 11, he refused to give hair and blood samples to investigators.

Finally the Sports Ministry ordered NADA on April 1 to immediately carry out tests on the boxer "for his reported use of heroin even out-of-competition."

OneIndia News