PMO refers Narsingh Yadav's dope case to CBI

The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) on Friday said that the CBI has started its probe into the doping scandal of tainted wrestler Narsingh Yadav after the PMO referred his case to the investigation agency. 

WFI president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and requested him to forward Narsingh's case to the Central Bureau Investigation for further investigation. 

"Prime Minister's Office has referred Narsingh's case to CBI for further investigation and proceedings are learnt to have started into the wrestler's doping scandal," Brij Bhushan told PTI. 

Narsingh was imposed a four-year ban last month by the Court of Arbitration (CAS), which barred him from taking part at Olympic Games and also threatened to jeopardise his entire career. 

Since then WFI had been demanding for a CBI probe. Narsingh had tested positive for banned substance about 20 days ahead of the start of the Olympic Games and the wrestler had alleged conspiracy against him, saying that either his food or drinks were spiked. 

But with Narsingh failing to produce any "real evidence" regarding the sabotage theory, the grappler from Maharashtra was debarred from representing India at the Rio Games in 74kg freestyle wrestling event. 

During the course of the Games, the CAS slapped a ban on him for flunking a dope test following WADA's challenge to the clean chit given to him by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) just three days ahead of his scheduled opening bout at the Olympics. 

However, during the hearing at Rio de Janeiro, (WADA) had said that if any decision was rendered at a later stage by a criminal court in India which confirmed the alleged sabotage, then any award made by the ad-hoc panel could be reviewed by the Supreme Court in Switzerland, where the CAS is based. 

The verdict marked a painful end to the controversy which began with the wrestler failing a dope test taken on June 25 and July 5. Despite grabbing the Olympic quota by virtue of his World Championships bronze in Las Vegas last year, Narsingh's road to Rio was fraught with obstacles after he was named to represent India ahead of double Olympic-medallist Sushil Kumar. 

Sushil dragged Narsingh to the Delhi High Court and a bitter courtroom tussle followed, but the judgment went in latter's favour. There was more drama in store for the Asian Games bronze-medallist after he returned positive for a banned steroid following a dope test in June by NADA.