National Anti-Doping Agency suspends Olympic Medallist wrestler Bajrang Punia once again

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

National Anti-Doping Agency has once again suspended Olympic Medallist wrestler Bajrang Punia for an anti-doping rule violation.

Earlier this month, the National Anti-Doping Agency's Disciplinary Panel (ADDP) revoked the provisional suspension imposed on Bajrang Punia till NADA issues a Notice of Charge to the wrestler, who had refused to provide his sample for dope test after the selection trials in March. NADA had suspended Tokyo Games bronze medallist Bajrang on April 23 and subsequently the world governing body UWW also took similar action.

The trials to pick the men's national team for the Asian Olympic Qualifiers in Bishkek were held in Sonepat on March 10 and Bajrang had walked off the venue without providing his urine sample after losing a bout.

He did not compete in the 3rd-4th place bout.

Bajrang had challenged the provisional suspension through his lawyers and reiterated in his reply to ADDP that he never refused to provide sample but just wanted to know why NADA has not replied to his earlier query on action taken by the National Anti-Doping Agency for sending expired kit to take his sample in December 2023.

(more to come)