Vijender Singh’s drug test negative: Sports Ministry

New Delhi: In a huge sigh of relief for Indian boxer Vijender Singh, National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) announced on Tuesday that the boxer has tested negative in the drug test.

New Delhi: In a respite to Olympic bronze medallist boxer Vijender Singh, who has been embroiled in a drug scandal, the dope test conducted on him has returned negative for banned substances, including that of heroin.

The Sports Ministry today said that Vijender's blood and urine samples returned negative for banned substances, including that of psychotropic drugs. The samples of four other boxers who were dope-tested along with Vijender also returned negative for banned substances. "Vijender Singh, Boxer, along with four others was subjected to an out of competition test for banned substances. A full menu test was conducted which included testing for psychotropic substances. Tests were only carried out on blood and urine samples," the Ministry said in a release. The tests were carried out by National Anti-Doping Agency on the request of Sports Ministry, who had stepped in to clear the air on the Olympic medallist, who had maintained a stoic silence after his initial denial of having taken heroin. "The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports is glad to announce that on the basis of these tests none of the boxers were found to have used any banned substances in the recent past," a release said. After refusing to undergo tests ever since the scandal broke out last month, Vijender's urine and blood samples were taken by the NADA on April 3, but it is learnt that the tests were not specifically for heroin. Vijender, who virtually went underground, had denied having consumed heroin after the controversy broke out. Punjab Police had claimed that Vijender had consumed heroin 12 times after procuring it from alleged drug smugglers, including NRI Anoop Singh Kahlon. Vijender's name had cropped up in the scandal when his wife's car was found outside the Zirakpur flat from where heroin worth Rs 130 crore was recovered. He was further implicated when his sparring partner Ram Singh and the drug racket's alleged kingpin Kahlon took his name as a consumer. Kahlon alias Ruby, the alleged Canada-based drug dealer, was arrested by police on March 3 and 26 kg heroin was seized from his residence in Zirakpur on the outskirts of Chandigarh. Earlier, Vijender, during his quizzing by Punjab police at Panchkula, had refused to give his blood and hair samples to the cops. He had denied any involvement in the drug racket. The police, however, had said that they have got "nothing from the possession of Vijender". In recent months, Vijender and Kahlon alias Ruby, the alleged Canada-based NRI drug dealer who was arrested by police on March 3 and 26 kg of heroin worth Rs 130 crore seized, had conversed with each other for "about 80 times" on their respective cell phones, police sources said. Besides, both Vijender and Kahlon had exchanged some ten SMSes on their cell phones, they added. The duration of each call was between two to three minutes, the sources said. PTI