Bajrang Punia alleges conspiracy after second suspension in two months: 'NADA doesn't want me to continue wrestling'

2 months ago 13

Bajrang Punia said the National Anti-Doping Agency doesn’t want him to continue wrestling, but he is ready to ‘fight till the end.’ read more

 'NADA doesn't want me to continue wrestling'

Bajrang Punia was one of the biggest faces to take part in the wrestlers' protest. PTI

Olympic medallist Bajrang Punia has said that the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) is “targeting” him with a second suspension in two months as “they don’t want” him to continue wrestling. Bajrang was first suspended by NADA at the beginning of May for failing to submit a urine sample during selection trials in Sonepat on 10 March. His suspension was later revoked by the National Anti-Doping Agency’s Disciplinary Panel (ADDP) in June but the Tokyo Olympics bronze medallist was suspended once again two weeks back.

Bajrang, who led the wrestlers’ protest against former BJP MP and ex-president of Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, has now alleged that the national body is hatching a conspiracy against him.

“This is related to the second suspension in 2 consecutive months after NADA revoked the first suspension in the same case,” Bajrang wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “NADA clearly ignored all the facts given to them and suspended me again. This shows how NADA is targeting me, they don’t want me to continue wrestling at any cost.”

यह NADA द्वारा एक ही मामले में पहले निलंबन को निरस्त करने के बाद लगातार 2 महीनों में दूसरे निलंबन से संबंधित है। NADA ने उन्हें दिए गए सभी तथ्यों को स्पष्ट रूप से नजरअंदाज कर दिया और मुझे फिर से निलंबित कर दिया। यह दर्शाता है कि NADA मुझे कैसे निशाना बना रहा है, वे नहीं चाहते कि…

— Bajrang Punia 🇮🇳 (@BajrangPunia) July 1, 2024

After being suspended for the first time, Bajrang had said that he had no problem in giving his sample but he wanted to know why NADA officials brought an “expired kit” to take his sample.

In his recent post, Barjang raised the same questions and added that he is ready to “fight till the end”.

“They have no answers and they don’t want to take responsibility for their mistakes, they just want to harass the athlete to get rid of them… NADA doesn’t want anyone to question their wrong ways and if someone does, he is targeted so that he cannot continue his sport… Why doesn’t NADA answer about the expired kit?

Why doesn’t NADA answer how an unregistered chaperone who was not named in the mission order approached and pressured me for sample collection? Why doesn’t NADA answer why I was pressured to collect samples between two matches when they knew I had only 20 minutes to prepare for the next bout?

“If NADA wants to challenge the grit and determination of wrestlers to stand up for their rights for the sake of their arrogance, let them do it.

“The wrestler is here and will fight till the end. My lawyer will file his reply on time.”

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