The sports ministry proclaimed on Tuesday that Olympic bronze medalist Vijender Singh has been tested negative for drugs.
The boxer was charged to have consumed recreational drugs with his boxing partner Ram Singh. Vijender had submitted his blood and urine samples to the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) after being directed by the sports ministry.
Vijender Singh and four others were directed to undergo an out of competition test for banned substances. Recently a full fledged test was conducted on their blood and urine samples which included testing for psychotropic substances.
The ministry of youth affairs and sports gladly announced that based on these tests, none of the boxers were found to have used any banned substances in the recent past.
Vijender's name had come up in a drug haul case where the Punjab police recovered 26 kg of heroin from non-resident Indian (NRI) Anoop Singh Kahlon's house in Zirakpur on 7th March. The car of Vijender's wife, Archana, was discovered near Kahlon's house by the police.
Punjab police is still investigating this issue and highlighted that the tests conducted by National Anti-Doping Agency have no legal validity. They claimed that blood and urine samples do not show traces of heroin or other drugs if taken from the convict after he has been clean for a week or more. As per medical experts, only hair samples exhibit heroin traces for 90 days and nail samples reveal the same for up to 4 months.
Fatehgarh Sahib senior superintendent of police Hardyal Singh Mann instructed that Vijender has to undergo the tests under legal provisions available in CrPC and IPC. It is evident that Punjab police will conduct tests for hair and nail samples from the boxer after already having been turned down once earlier.
