National Anti-Doping Agency seized meldonium from Jithin Paul’s room at NIS Patiala in April last year. (Source: File)
For the first time in Indian sport an athlete has been sanctioned for possessing a banned drug.
The disciplinary panel of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) found 400 metre hurdler Jithin Paul, a national camper, guilty of possessing meldonium, the drug that brought shame to tennis star Maria Sharopova in 2016.
Interestingly, Paul has never tested positive – in-competition or out-of-competition.
But anti-doping officials, during a search of his room at the National Institute of Sports campus in Patiala, recovered vials which contained meldonium, according to test results produced by the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) in New Delhi.
Meldonium was added to the banned list by the World Anti-Doping Agency in 2016 after evidence pointed to it being used to enhance performance as it helped in carrying an increased amount of oxygen to the muscles. Meldonium is not known to be manufactured in India and is largely supplied in Russia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
On Tuesday, a disciplinary panel of the NADA banned Paul for four years. According to the World Anti-Doping Code (article 2.6.1) an athlete can be charged with an anti-doping rule violation if he or she is in possession of a prohibited substance in competition or out of competition.
The case dates back to April last year, when anti-doping officers swooped in on the Milkha Singh Hostel block at the NIS in Patiala and conducted checks in rooms of athletes and coaches. According to the order of the disciplinary panel vials of carnitene — commonly prescribed for weight loss and fat burning — and injections of Mnaapohat were recovered from Paul’s room.
Results of tests conducted at the NDTL revealed the presence of meldonium in Mnaapohat. Injections were also seized from Paul’s roommate, Muhammed Kunju, also part of the 400 metre squad, but tests did not detect any prohibited substance.
In his submissions before the panel, the athlete contended that the injection, which contained meldonium was never seized from his room and also said that no seizure memo was given to him when the injections were sealed and taken by NADA officials.
The athlete also argued that in the notice he received from NADA the number of Mnaapohat injections were mentioned as 10 but markings on the sealed envelope were 20.
However, during the hearing NADA attributed the discrepancy in the number of injections to a ‘clerical error’, which was ‘corrected in front of the athlete.’
No TUE
NADA also argued that the athlete had not applied for Therapeutic Use Exemption for meldonium.
Paul also submitted affidavits of KS Jeevan, an athlete part of the national camp, Kunju and coach of the 400 metres squad Mohammed Kunhi — all stress on the fact that Mnaapohat was not recovered from the room.
“After considering all the written/oral submissions of the parties and evidence presented by both the sides, the panel concludes that athlete Mr Jithin Paul was in possession of Prohibited Substance meldonium and violated Article 2.6 of the Anti-Doping rules of NADA 2015,” the disciplinary panel’s order stated. “In the present case, the athlete has been found in possession of Prohibited Substance in his room at the National Institute of Sport, Patiala, during search conducted by NADA on 17th April, 2017 and the athlete had no reasonable justification for possession of the prohibited substance in his room,” the order added.
Meldonium falls in the category of a non-specified substance, which means the onus is on the athlete to prove that the possession of the banned substance was unintentional.
Paul’s lawyer Parth Goswami said that the athlete would knock on the doors of the anti-doping appeal panel.
“The (disciplinary) panel has not considered vital aspects of this case in their order. Casual clarifications of NADA on crucial issues have been accepted and statements in defence of the athlete by international level athletes and coaches made on affidavits have been ignored without any reasoning. We will definitely appeal against this order,” Goswami said.
Incidentally, this is not the first case relating to meldonium to come before a panel. Teenage wrestler Nisha was banned for four years for testing positive for meldonium, while decathlete Jagtar Singh failed a dope test for the same banned substance and was pulled out of the Indian team for the Asian Athletics Championships last year.
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