Chandigarh:
Olympic medallist Vijender Singh's coach Jagdish Singh says the Punjab police are trying to implicate the boxer by linking him to an alleged dealer arrested in a drug haul case last month. He says Vijender's sparring partner Ram Singh is being tortured by the police and made to give statements against the star boxer.
"The police have kept Ram Singh in custody illegally. They are changing his location every two days. He is being tortured and forced to make statements against Vijender," Mr Singh told NDTV.
Dinesh Kumar, another boxer and Vijender Singh's friend, too has said that Vijender could be a victim of a frame-up. Yesterday, he alleged that the Punjab police are lying when they say they recovered a car registered in the name of Vijender's wife from outside the home of alleged drug dealer Anoop Singh Kahlon during a raid on March 6.
Police had seized 26 kilograms of heroin and other drugs, valued at Rs 130 crore, in the raid on Kahlon's residence in Zirakpur near Chandigarh.
The police say Vijender, who won India its first boxing Olympic medal in 2008, bought heroin from Kahlon 12 times in the last few months for his own use.
Dinesh Kumar says he had accompanied Ram Singh to the Fategarh Sahib police station on March 7, a day after the raid. He alleges he and Ram Singh drove in the same car that police later said was recovered from outside Kahlon's home.
The Fatehgarh Sahib police say there is no substance in the claim.
Vijender Singh has denied the allegations and refused to give the Punjab Police hair and blood samples to test for heroin abuse. The police reportedly plan to move court to get those samples after the National Anti-Doping Agency or NADA turned down a Sports Ministry request to test Vijender for heroin, saying protocol did not allow it to test an athlete for that drug when he was out of competition.