Intermediate hurdler Kuldev Singh and woman discus thrower Rinku Sangwan have been suspended for two years for anti-doping rule violation charges.
Both tested positive for methylhexaneamine at the last National Games in Ranchi and were heard by the National Anti Doping Disciplinary panel headed by Dinesh Dayal. Both were suspended from the date of decision, September 13.
Kuldev, 30, of Punjab, won the 400m hurdles title in Ranchi last February, clocking a personal best 50.31s, in the process upsetting Asian Games champion Joseph Abraham.
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Sangwan, 21, representing Haryana, took the silver behind Harwant Kaur at the National Games with a throw of 46.50m.
Despite stating before the panel that he would engage a lawyer and argue his case, Kuldev failed to put up a case despite being given almost two months to present his arguments.
“The findings with respect to Methylhexaneamine have really not been challenged by the athlete,” the panel wrote in its order.
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Sangwan did not appear before the panel after an initial hearing in July in which she also had claimed that she would engage a lawyer.
In all, the hearing panels have imposed two-year suspensions on first-time offenders in four methylhexaneamine cases, all coming from the National Games. A fifth case, that of weightlifter Sanamacha Chanu, ended in an eight-year ban since that happened to be her second violation.
Meanwhile, the National Anti-Doping Appeal panel headed by Justice C.K. Mahajan (retd.) has upheld the decision of the disciplinary panel to reprieve athlete Saroj Sihag who was charged with a steroid violation.
The appeal panel concurred with the disciplinary panel's view that the athlete was not given an opportunity to witness her ‘B' sample testing and thus the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) had failed to bring forward a legitimate case that followed laid-down norms.
The NADA appeal against the exoneration was dismissed.