Chandigarh:
Dinesh Kumar, a boxer and Vijender Singh's friend, has added a twist to the drug tale suggesting today that the star boxer could be the victim of a frame-up. Mr Kumar has alleged that the Punjab Police is lying when it says that it recovered a car registered in the name of Vijender's wife from outside the home of alleged drug dealer Anoop Singh Kahlon during a raid.
The police have alleged that Vijender, who won India its first boxing Olympic medal in 2008, bought heroin from Kahlon 12 times in the last few months for his own use.
Dinesh Kumar is no pushover in the boxing arena either. He has won an Asian Games medal, has represented India in the Olympics and has received an Arjuna Award. He told reporters today that he accompanied Ram Singh, Vijender's sparring partner, to the Fategarh Sahib police station on March 7 last, a day after the police raided Kahlon's house in Zirakpur, near Chandigarh.
Mr Singh said the two boxers drove Vijender's car to the police station, where, he said, the police asked him to leave, but he did not. Then, he alleged, "three-four cops came and said we want the vehicle. We asked them why they wanted it and we said that the vehicle belonged to Vijender and hence, we couldn't hand it over. Despite that, they took away the keys and said they will return in an hour and a half."
The previous night, the police had seized 26 kilograms of heroin and other drugs with a street value of Rs. 130 crore in the raid on Kahlon's residence. The police alleged that they had found Vijender's wife's car parked outside and began investigating the boxer's alleged association with Kahlon.
Vijender Singh has denied all allegations and has so far refused to give the Punjab Police hair and blood samples to test for heroin abuse. The police now reportedly plan to move court to get those samples after the National Anti-Doping Agency or NADA turned down a Sports Ministry request to test Vijender Singh for heroin, saying protocol did not allow it to test an athlete for that drug when he was out of competition.
They did say, however, that they would administer a substance test, adding that the boxer has missed three drug tests, mandatory for an out-of-competition boxer, in the last one month.
Punjab Police sources say that their allegation of heroin abuse against Vijender is based on the interrogation of Kahlon and Ram Singh and on phone call records. They want the samples to substantiate their allegation.