JOIN US The hearing of shot-putter Inderjeet Singh's case at the National Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel was further delayed on Wednesday.
During the short proceeding, Inderjeet's lawyer Anish Dayal referred to their application requesting the testing of his ‘B’ sample at another WADA-accredited laboratory. Such a request was prompted by “the contradiction in the findings” in the second sample collected on June 29 in Hyderabad.
However, with NADA going ahead with the test in the presence of an independent observer, it didn't go well with Dayal. He argued against NADA’s move saying his application was still pending with the panel, headed by District and Session Judge (Retd.) Ramnath, former shuttler Damayanti Tamba and Dr Bikash Medhi.
NADA, represented by Rajeev Yadav from Kanth and Associates, countered by stating that they went ahead with the testing only after Inderjeet refused to turn up for the same.
As per International Standards for Laboratories 2016 the relevant rule for ‘B’ sample testing says: “The “B” Sample confirmation shall be performed in the same Laboratory as the “A” Sample confirmation.”
This means the panel, if it was asked to determine about testing the 'B' sample in another laboratory, should have dismissed such a request saying rules did not permit it. The ruling could have come months earlier.
At the hearing on Wednesday, Dayal had spoken about another of his application which he insisted was misinterpreted by the NADA. His application, Dayal, said sought details about the review process of NADA once the sample was tested and the procedure adopted for the same. NADA clarified that there was no such rule about the review panel and it was conducted by the senior project officer. The procedure, NADA stated, was explained in detail to the athlete once he was notified about his positive test, in this case on August 1, 2016.
Inderjeet tested positive for testosterone days before the Rio Games for a sample collected on June 22 during training. Another sample collected during competition in Hyderabad, on June 29, also was notified as ‘positive’ after NADA initially informed the federation that it had turned up negative. Inderjeet alleged that there was “sabotage”.