Citing reasons for the National Anti-Doping Agency’s refusal to test boxer Vijender Singh for heroin, the agency chief on Tuesday said it could not go against the World Anti-Doping Agency’s code of conduct.
Blood and urine tests are conducted as per the rules of both the agencies, NADA director general Mukul Chaterjee said.
On the possibility of tests on Vijender, Chaterjee said: “We never disclose to anyone when and where the test will be conducted. This is prohibited under the WADA code. The last test that we did on him was in July-August 2012. It was negative.”
He said the dope test would be conducted as per the NADA’s discretion.
In the WADA list of prohibited substances for out-of-competition, heroin is not mentioned. But it is true that traces of heroin could be found in hair samples for a period of over three months, he added.
Vijender’s name cropped up in the drug case after his wife’s car was found outside the Zirakpur flat of Kahlon alias Ruby, an alleged drug dealer from Canada from whom heroin worth `130 crore was recovered. Vijender’s sparring partner Ram Singh had also admitted to consuming drugs.
Vijender, a former world number one middle weight boxer, later issued a statement that he took drugs, but refused to give samples to the Punjab Police.