NADDP Suspended 11 Athletes for Two Years on Charges of Doping

The National Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel (NADDP) on 5 November 2012 suspended all the 11 athletes for two years, who were tested positive with methylhexaneamine (MHA) in the run-up of the last Commonwealth Games. The decision came-up after a twenty five months long hearing process and the suspension would be in effect from the date of decision making.

The panel hearing into the case also ordered disqualification of all the records and results by their name recorded from the date of sample collection, it would also include omission of all the consequences that included forfeiture of all the points, medals and prizes. Following the provisions of Article 10.8 of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and the code of World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) which is yet not applied in the hearing procedures of Indian disciplinary, would mean the loss of Bronze Medal in the 96 kilogram freestyle category of Wrestling from wrestler Mausam Khatri, which he won in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.

The additional disqualification of results from sample collection date, under Article 10.8 of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) rules and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Code, hitherto not applied in Indian disciplinary hearing procedures, will mean that wrestler Mausam Khatri will lose his bronze medal in the 96kg freestyle category in the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.

Under the same provisions, swimmer Richa Mishra would lose all the 16 medals that include 11 Gold in the National Games February 2011 held at Ranchi along with the other five Gold won during National Swimming Championships held in October 2012 at Pune.

Others, against whom the hearing were carried on and whose name were included in the suspension orders include six wrestlers out of which Rajeev Tomar is an Arjuna Awardee and rest five are Sumit Sehrawat, Joginder Singh, Gursharanpreet Kaur including Mausam Khatri. The list also have name of two athletes namely Saurabh Vij and Akash Antil along with three swimmers and they are Amar Muralidharan, Jyotsana Pansare and Richa.

The disciplinary panel that was hearing into the case included retired judge Dinesh Dayal and former Asian badminton champion Dinesh Khanna and Dr. N.K. Khadiya disqualified the evidence presented to establish deviations in proceedings of the laboratory and other agencies involved in the processes.