Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia has made allegations of corruption against the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) claiming the anti-doping official who visited him to take an 'out of competition' sample was using expired equipment.
Bajrang posted a video on X (formerly Twitter) showing the equipment that was being used for his dope test, with each having crossed its date of expiry.
'How do we trust the system if procedures are not followed. How can one ensure that there is no manipulation in the entire process? This can happen to anyone, especially junior athletes. Please be informed about your rights and procedure related to doping,' he said in the post of the video.
In the video, Bajrang can be seen holding sealed bags of dope testing equipment as he points to show the date of expiry printed on them. 'Look at this bag,' he says. 'This has expired in February of 2023, this one expired in December of 2022 and this one in June of 2022'.
‘I’m not blaming the doctor here. This is being done by officials in higher places who want to forcefully trap athletes,' he further says in the video.
'There is a girl involved in the Brij Bhushan case, who his men could not break, his men told her that doping officials will come. They have trapped her in a dope case,' he says referring to the wrestlers' fight against former WFI chief Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh even as he claims his associates are continuing to pressurise witnesses in the case.
The WFI elections to elect a new Governing Body is set to take place on 21 December, after much delay, with Brij Bhushan-loyalist Sanjay Singh and 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist Anita Sheoran in the running for the WFI president’s post.
Bajrang and Sakshi Malik had approached the Sports Minister last week to urge him to not allow any of Bhushan's associates to participate in the election.
“Yes, we met with the sports minister today and reminded him of his promise that no one related to Brij Bhushan should contest the WFI elections,” Punia had told reporters on 11 December.
Punia and Malik, along with Vinesh Phogat, had led a two-month-long protest against Brij Bhushan, who has been accused of sexually harassing many young female wrestlers on several occasions. They withdrew their protest after the government promised that no one connected to Brij Bhushan would contest the WFI elections.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)