The drug scandal surrounding Vijender Singh today took a new twist with one of his fellow pugilists Dinesh Kumar disputing the claims of Punjab Police even as the Sports Ministry explored ways to subject the star boxer to a heroin test despite NADA's refusal to do so.
Almost a month after the scandal broke out, Dinesh, an Asian Games silver medallist, claimed that Punjab Police planted Vijender's car outside the flat from where heroin was recovered.
Contradicting the Punjab Police version, Dinesh said that he and one of his friends had accompanied Ram Singh at the police station but the policemen asked them to go and leave the car behind which was later found at Zirakpur.
"Me and a fellow boxer Bunty accompanied Ram Singh to Fatehgarh Sahib police station in the car which the police claim was found outside the flat. When we reached there, the police told us that Ram would have to be questioned," Dinesh told PTI.
"The policemen insisted that we leave the car at the station only. We objected to it and told them that the car was not ours and had to be taken back to Patiala but they forced us to leave the car at the station and told us to go back," he said.
The Sports Ministry, which had yesterday stepped in to clear the air by asking NADA to test the boxer, was waiting for a written response before deciding its future course of action.
The NADA, which is an autonomous body, is willing to conduct a regular out-of-competition dope test on Vijender but has expressed its inability to test the Olympic bronze-medallist for heroin citing World Anti-Doping Agency's protocol.
"We have not asked NADA to proclaim anything on his guilt but just conduct a test to find out whether he took heroin... the NADA has not conveyed anything to us in writing, let them do that first and then we will think of our stand," Sports Secretary P K Deb told PTI.
