New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Friday asked CBI to complete within a month its investigation into wrestler Narsingh Yadav’s 2016 complaint alleging that his food was spiked leading to a ban on him for four years from the sport on doping charge. He cannot be left remediless, the court observed and said the shelf life of an athlete is very short. It also noted the CBI’s submission that Yadav was one of the best wrestlers India has in the men’s freestyle 74 kg category.
Justice Najmi Waziri, perused the status report filed by CBI in a sealed cover, and noted that the central government was in the process of obtaining statements of members of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) panel, based abroad, which had taken the final decision to slap the four-year ban on Yadav. The court asked CBI to complete within a month the probe into Yadav’s complaint and granted time to the agency which submitted that its investigation was almost complete. It listed the matter for further hearing on March 6.
During the hearing, CBI counsel said they have full sympathies with him and he was one of the best wrestlers the country has and that they also wanted to conclude the probe as soon as possible. The CBI counsel said the agency was helping the wrestler and they have sent various reminders through diplomatic channels for permission to question the members of the CAS panel and the scientists involved in the decision making process who were foreign nationals.
To this, the court asked the agency as to what help it has done to Yadav for the last two years and said “you (CBI) have to do something more than just requesting them. We have diplomatic channels, use them”. The court also asked the agency to find out whether it was happening only with Indian players, who were being banned from participating in the international events or with others also. It had earlier noted that the sportsperson had lodged the complaint after the CAS upheld the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) decision not to give a clean chit to him in the doping violation case.
When CBI said WADA was not responding to it, the court asked then “should he be left remediless?” The court had earlier issued a notice to the CBI and asked it to file its response regarding status of the investigation and how it has pursued the matter. Prior to the CAS decision, the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) had cleared him for the 2016 Rio Olympics. He was going to represent India in the men’s freestyle 74kg category. The court had earlier also asked the CBI what it had been doing since he made the complaint and added that the agency should look at it from the point of view of the sportsperson who has a “short shelf-life”, especially in contact sports like wrestling and boxing.
The court had said it would not only be a personal loss, it would be a loss to sports and a loss to bring glory to India. The CBI had told the court that the agency had to question members of the CAS panel who had taken the final decision to slap the four-year ban on Yadav. Yadav has moved the court for speedy disposal of his complaint, saying that it has been pending before the agency since 2016. He has claimed that he had made several representations to the agency to complete the probe, but nothing has happened till date.
