Is Vijender clean? Punjab police says 'NADA report not valid'

Punjab police is not taking a lenient posture on boxer Vijender Singh - accused of consuming heroin -despite the Olympian getting a clean chit from the Sports Ministry on Tuesday. Officials of the force now say tests conducted by National Anti-Doping Agency 'have no legal validity.'

NADA's test on blood and urine samples provided by Vijender returned negative but Punjab police says that these samples 'do not show traces of heroin or other drugs if taken from the accused after he has been clean for a week or more.' According to medical experts, only hair samples show heroin traces for 90 days and nail samples reveal the same for up to four months.

Fatehgarh Sahib district police also issued a statement on the matter on Tuesday which said that the tests should have been done under legal provisions by the state police which, after investigations, had accused Vijender of consuming heroin 12 times. "The investigation agency is the Fategharh Sahib police which had found the boxer's car outside a drug dealer's flat and has concluded that he consumed heroin. He has to get the tests done under legal provisions available in CrPC and IPC," said Hardyal Singh Mann, Fatehgarh Sahib senior superintendent of police.

It has now been learnt that Punjab police will push for hair and nail samples from the boxer after already having been turned down once previously.