With the ghost of doping returning to haunt Indian weightlifting, Sports Minister M S Gill has taken strong exception to the latest case involving Kavita Devi and called for a review meeting to discuss the menace.
After weightlifters let down the nation at the Athens Olympics and the Melbourne Commonwealth Games, Gill does not want to take any chances ahead of the Beijing Games in August.
Kavita, a 75 kg weightlifter, was caught for using a banned substance in an out-of-competition test, conducted by World Anti-Doping Agency officials in March, but the Indian Weightlifting Federation disclosed it only a couple of days back.
Kavita's 'A' sample was found positive for the banned steroid methadienone and she has refused to go for 'B' sample testing. She has been handed a two-year ban from participating in any national and international events besides a fine of US $2,000 which the Indian federation will have to cough up if she does not pay.
It has been reliably learnt that Sports Minister's private secretary rang up the Indian Weightlifting Federation office on Tuesday and sought details of how Kavita, training at the SAI Centre of Excellence, Lucknow, returned a positive test.
"A personal assistant of the Sports Minister rang up the office today and sought the details of the dope test from the president (Harbhajan Singh)," a Ministry source said.
"The minister has decided to review the situation and a meeting will take place soon," he said.
When contacted, Harbhajan said his office might have been contacted by the ministry but he has not been contacted so far.
"My office may have been contacted, I have not been contacted (by the sports minister) so far. We are writing to the IWF [the international body] that she (Kavita) has not agreed for 'B' sample testing.
"Once we do this she will be barred from taking part in any national and international event for two years besides paying US $2,000 as fine (to the international federation)," he said from Lucknow.
The Indian federation was banned twice previously -- in 2004 and 2006 -- for dope violations and another positive result during the year will see a third-time ban.
Kavita's sample was one among those a team of WADA officials had collected late last year and in March from lifters who were training at NIS Patiala for the Asian Championship in Japan.
Sources also say that Kavita will also be fined Rs 25,000 by the Indian federation.
"Her refusal to go for 'B' sample test meant she has virtually accepted her guilt and the WFI will also impose fine on her," the source added.
Kavita accompanied the Indian team to Japan but had to return without taking part in the April 27-May 1 last Olympic qualifying event for Asia, from which Indian women booked one Olympic berth.
The Indian team left for Kanazawa on April 23 and by the time an e-mail from the international body reached the WFI office the next day, she was in Japan.
Apparently, the drug used by Kavita is not available in India and it is a mystery how she had got the banned substance.
IWF's executive committee will discuss the matter at its meeting in Lucknow on Thursday and also choose a new general secretary, a post lying vacant after Balbir Singh Bhatia resigned last month.