New Delhi: Cracking the whip on dope
offenders, Indian Weightlifting Federation today handed life
bans on three lifters, including 2006 Commonwealth Games
silver medallist Vicky Bhatta (56 kg), for their second dope
offences.
The IWF, which is trying to cleanse weightlifting from
the menace of doping, handed bans on Bhatta and two Services
lifters G Damodaran (105 kg) and Rajesh Kumar Singh (94kg).
"We have handed life bans on Vicky Bhatta, G Damodaran
and Rajesh Kumar Singh as they had failed dope tests for the
second time. The federation is very serious on taking strong
action on drug offenders. We want to clean up the dope menace
and we are sending a strong message that we are not going to
tolerate doping," IWF Secretary Sahadev Yadav told PTI.
"Today, we have sent letters to the individual lifters
and to their employers and state units," he added.
Bhatta returned positive for a banned drug during the
2007 National Games in Guwahati and he was among the six
lifters who was caught for doping in the out-of-competition
tests by WADA in Pune in September last year.
Bhatta will also have to return IWF USD 5,500, the money
the national body had given to the international federation as
fine for his dope offence and charge for undergoing `B` sample
test.
"We had given the International Body USD 5,000 as fine
for Bhatta`s dope flunk and then we had to deposit another USD
500 as he had asked for `B` sample test after his `A` sample,
collected by WADA in Pune last September returned positive.
Now we have asked him to return to us the USD 5,5000," Yadav
said.
Interestingly, Bhatta was handed a four-year ban by the
International Weightlifting Federation -- till September 2013
-- as his last September dope flunk was the first under WADA
test.
Damodaran tested positive in the Inter-Services Meet in
Jamnagar in November last year. He first flunked dope test in
the 2006 Senior National Championships in Visakhapatnam, for
which he served a two-year-ban. Rajesh Kumar was also one of the six lifters who flunked
dope tests in the WADA out-of-competition tests last September
which led to IWF being handed a fine of USD 5 lakh by the
international body. He first tested positive in the 2006
Inter-Services Meet in Jamnagar.
Rajesh Kumar will also have to return the USD 5,000 the
IWF had given to the international federation as fine for his
dope flunk. He did not ask for `B` sample test.
Following the dope flunk by six lifters in WADA
out-of-competition test, 75-kg woman lifter Shailaja was
handed life ban by International Weightlifting federation
while the other five were banned for four years, till
September 2013. Besides Bhatta, Pujari and Rajesh Kumar, the
other three lifters were Harbhajan Singh, Sunita Rani and
Arambam Bijaya Devi.
Recently, 70 lifters did not turn for competition after
sending entries for the Senior National Championships in
Udaipur in January due to fear of being caught for doping as
IWF had conducted large scale dope testing.
PTI
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