Raid at Sports Authority of India’s Bangalore centre

Two days after conducting a raid at the National Institute of Sport in Patiala, the National Anti Doping Agency (NADA) carried out a similar surprise inspection of the Sports Authority of India (South Centre) here on Monday.

A four-member team — comprising two officials from Delhi and two empanelled Doping Control Officers from Bangalore — led by V. Jayaraman, Senior Project Manager, NADA, arrived on the premises at 8 a.m. and searched inmates rooms and collected samples at random.

“We have come for a suprise check,” Jayaraman said. “This includes inspecting some of the rooms at random and selecting athletes for on-the-spot collection,” he said.

The team searched 51 rooms across four hostels, recovering “some items”.

“We formed two teams. We got…I don’t know, maybe food supplements, I don’t remember…,” he said.

“What we found was suspect and we have taken them from the rooms.” Most of the rooms inspected had multiple occupants, he revealed, with one even housing coaches.

The search of the rooms lasted a few hours while the process of collecting samples was still in progress when Jayaraman addressed the press in the evening.

He estimated that 25 samples, from athletes across disciplines (including members of the National hockey team camped there), would be taken by the end of the day. Results of the tests would arrive from the National Dope Testing Laboratory in seven working days’ time, he said.

The Sports Authority of India’s Bangalore campus is home to several National camps — including athletics, weightlifting, and hockey.

Director G. Kishore said the visiting NADA team had been extended complete support.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, an anti-doping seminar, led by Dr. C.D. Tripathi of NADA’s Therapeutic Use Exemption Committee (TUEC), will be conducted for all athletes and coaches residing on the campus.