Indian Boxer Vijender Singh Questioned In Drug Bust
Vijender Singh photo by Reuters
by Gautham Nagesh
India is a country so starved for athletic success, chess players sometimes dominate the sports page. Outside of cricket, India has barely any modern sporting tradition to speak of. The formerly formidable field hockey team is now toothless; the best Indian tennis players are typically specialists in doubles.
Into that vacuum stepped middleweight boxer Vijender Singh, who took the country by storm at the 2008 Olympics. Singh’s bronze medal in Beijing was the country’s first in boxing, and one of the few it has won in any sport recently. Afterward Singh became a national icon, landing lucrative endorsement deals and a cushy job in the police department, which like the Indian Army and rail industry, is a traditional employer of Indian athletes. Singh returned to the Olympics in London last summer, where he won a controversial decision over American Terrell Gausha before succumbing in the quarterfinals.
How far Beijing must seem now to Singh, who is currently the subject of numerous headlines thanks to his suspected involvement in a drug investigation currently underway in Punjab. Indian press reports generally tend to be imprecise if not outright unreliable, but they seem in agreement on one fact: a car registered to Singh’s wife was found outside a home where police found 26 kg of heroin. From IBT:[[MORE]]
Suspicion of Vijender Singh’s links with drug peddlers emerged after a car registered in his wife’s name was found outside the flat where heroin worth ₹130 crore was recovered.
The police have arrested five more people - Sunil Katyal, Manpreet Singh alias Mani, his friend Gabbar Singh, and two more persons - while carrying out several raids to nab the alleged kingpin Jagdish Bhola.
The police also found out that Vijender Singh spoke to Kahlon as many as 12 times in a month and Ram Singh for over 50 times. Vijender Singh was also to be a regular vistor at Kahlon’s house where the police recovered a huge amount of drugs.
Singh has since been interrogated by Punjab police, and reportedly declined to share hair and blood samples for testing. Singh also denies claims by sparring partner Ram Singh that the two experimented with heroin. From NDTV:
Vijender sparring partner and national-level boxer Ram Singh has said that the pair sourced drugs a few times from the dealer as “an adventure,” according to news agency IANS. “We had taken very small quantity of drugs, less than two grams each. But we are not habitual takers of drugs and had tried it just for adventure. We did not intend to improve our stamina or performance by taking it,” Ram Singh told IANS on the phone.
But Vijender Singh had emphatically denied that he has any links to the case. “I have nothing to do with drugs. I am ready to join investigations at any point of time and am also ready to undergo any kind of dope test,” he had earlier said.
Things don’t look good for Singh, especially given the considerable stigma against drug use that lingers in India. At this point the investigation remains ongoing any nothing has been proven, so Singh could still be vindicated. Unfortunately, the stigma of the bust will probably linger regardless. We had hoped Singh would turn professional and become India’s first bankable boxing attraction; now we just hope his life improves, regardless of what else comes out.