Shot-putter Inderjeet Singh handed 4-year ban by CAS after WADA challenged NADA Appeal Panel's decision
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Inderjeet Singh was handed a four-year ban by Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Wednesday as CAS overturned India’s National Anti-Doping Association (NADA) Appeal Panel’s decision to give a clean chit to the shotputter. Inderjeet’s lawyer failed to prove that his client’s sample was tampered.
Indian shot-putter Inderjeet Singh was handed a four-year ban by Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) on Wednesday. The ban comes after CAS overturned India’s National Anti-Doping Association (NADA) Appeal Panel’s decision to give a clean chit to the former Asian Games Shot-put champion and World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) appealed against NADA’s decision.
The ban comes into effect from 26 September 2019, but since Inderjeet has already served a ban from 25 July 2016 to 14 December 2018, those 29 months will be reduced from the new ban, Amar Ujala reported on Wednesday.
CAS has also fined Nada and Inderjeet 3000 Swiss Francs as compensation for the expenses incurred in the legal process.
NADA had imposed a four-year ban on Inderjeet following a long-drawn procedure lasting around one-and-a-half years, a disciplinary panel in July 2018 had pronounced the suspension on Inderjeet, who tested positive twice – on June 22, 2016 and June 29, 2016 out-of-competition and in-competition tests respectively for banned steroids. But the shot-putter appealed against the decision in the Appeal Panel which found flaws in Nada’s ruling. It acquitted Inderjeet of the ban after the appeal panel noted the fact that in case of the sample collected at Bhiwani on June 22, 2016, there was a gap of several hours between the collection time and submission time. It was stated that the sample was stored overnight at the residence of the dope control officer.
Earlier this year, WADA challenged NADA Appeal Panel’s decision to acquit Inderjeet in CAS, which accepted the arguments presented by WADA’s arbitrator. CAS sole arbitrator Markus Manninen did not agree with the appeal panel decision and overturned it as Inderjeet’s lawyer could not prove that his client’s samples were tampered. There was no clarity as to how the banned substance entered Inderjeet’s body.
The CAS order has not been made public. A source close to Inderjeet said he might challenge the order. “It came two days ago and is a long one. We have to study it and consider appealing within 21 days. The CAS has already put the costs on us and international arbitrations are expensive affairs,” said the source to Sportstar on Wednesday.
