New Delhi: Disregarding NADA's request to
put on hold the disciplinary proceedings of dope tainted top
quarter-milers Mandeep Kaur and Jauna Murmu, the Athletics
Federation of India on Friday went ahead with the hearing with the
athletes being represented by their lawyers.
The hearing at the AFI headquarters here was adjourned
for July 20 as the National Dope Testing Laboratory could not
provide on time the dope test related documents to the
federation panel led by its Medical Committee chief Arun
Mendiratta.
Mandeep and Jauna did not attend the hearing though AFI
officials initially said that they would come.
The AFI and NADA were in a tussle on who should conduct
the disciplinary proceedings of the two athletes who had
tested positive in the tests conducted by both IAAF and NADA
as there is a case of jurisdictional overlapping.
"Mandeep and Jauna were on Friday represented by their
lawyers. The AFI panel collected the wakalatnama (power of
attorney) from the lawyers of the athletes. The hearing has
been adjourned for July 20 at 5:30 pm as the penal could not
get the dope test related documents from the NDTL," AFI
Director M L Dogra told reporters.
"The athletes wanted to examine the documents of their A
and B sample tests and the chain of custody of these samples.
But at 3:30pm we received a telephonic intimation from Shiela
Jain, Principal Director of NDTL that due to some technical
problems the documents will not be able to be provided to the
AFI.
"We are hoping that we will get these documents by July
18 and these will be handed to the athletes," Dogra said.
The two athletes were represented by Delhi High Court
lawyers, Rajat Bhardwaj and Sandeep Khatri.
The three other members of the AFI panel were Dr Girish
Tyagi, Dr Brijesh Kaushal and Capt (Dr) N R Tuli.
PTI
First Published: Friday, July 15, 2011, 20:40