For the past several months, boxer Manjeet Singh had been running around, trying to get himself out of an anti-doping rule violation charge.
This happens to be the second charge against him and he could be out for one to four years or four to six years, depending on the eventual assessment by the hearing panel, if the charge is proved.
His lawyers are optimistic that they would be able to prove that he was not at fault in the latest case and the charge should be dismissed.
On Tuesday, before the National Anti-Doping Disciplinary panel, chaired by Sudhir Nandrajog, Manjeet's assertion of having been administered a steroid ointment at the National Institute of Sports (NIS), Patiala, around this time last year, was denied by Dr. M. Bhattacharya and nursing assistant Nirmala Devi of the NIS.
They produced records from the NIS Medical Centre to assert that Manjeet was never administered clostagen ointment, as claimed by the boxer, the doctor in charge of the team at that time, Dr. Karanjeet Singh, and the Chairperson of the Indian Boxing Federation Anti-Doping Commission, Dr. Sanjogita Soodan.
Clostagen contains clostebol, a steroid. Manjeet's urine sample collected on June 8, 2010, at Patiala, returned chloroandrost, a metabolite of clostebol.
The defence team had earlier submitted what were purported to be photocopies of the relevant pages of the register at the NIS medical centre which indicated that the boxer was administered clostagen ointment for at least a few days prior to his dope test.
Dr. Karanjeet Singh had certified that Manjeet had suffered a road accident on May 29, 2010, and he had advised application of soframycin ointment, among other medicines, for his injuries. Dr. Singh later claimed in a written submission that instead of soframycin, clostagen was applied at the NIS medical room, leading to the ‘positive' test for clostebol.
On Tuesday, Dr. Bhattacharya questioned Dr. Karanjeet's assertion that a wrong medicine was applied. Mrs. Devi, nursing assistant, contended that for all the boxers, medicines were prescribed and applied by Dr. Karanjeet and the nursing staff had nothing to do with it.
Manjeet stated that the medicine was applied by another nurse, Ms. Vandana. He admitted that he had unauthorisedly got photocopies made of the register.
The defence accused the NIS personnel of having fudged the original documents. Dr. Bhattacharya certified the correctness of the records he had brought along from Patiala.
There was also a hint of counter charge that Manjeet could have amended those documents when he photocopied them.
Surprisingly, Dr. Bhattacharya revealed that a “bunch of prescriptions and registration cards,” pertaining to that period, were missing. The defence smelt “foul play.”
At the next hearing on June 28, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) was asked to summon Dr. Karanjeet and nurse Vandana, along with Dr. Bhattacharya and Mrs. Devi.
The defence's plea, to get the medical records submitted by the NIS to be examined by forensic experts, was turned down, at least for the time being, by Nandrajog.
Strange but...
Though it may sound strange that a steroid ointment is kept at the NIS medical centre, since an athlete could easily get involved in a doping charge if, even by mistake, the medicine was applied, Dr. Bhattacharya explained that such medications were being used for NIS employees and coaching staff etc.
Manjeet, the 22-year-old international boxer, who hails from Haryana, and represents the Railways, had first tested positive in May, 2008 for a steroid. He was initially banned for two years then, but on appeal, his suspension period was reduced to one year on the argument that he went by the advice of a doctor and could not be completely faulted.
