And to think government ignored professional help

The company — which has India’s only ISO-IEC 17025 testing facility — is not specifically into sports dope-testing but believes its vast experience in related areas makes it ideal for the job. ‘‘We test about 5,000 patients a day, that makes it about 15,000 specimens. We have the experience to deal with dope testing on a large scale’’, Sahni said. SRL Ranbaxy first came into the picture during the Sunita Rani case. The company’s pointed objections about the procedures followed by Seoul dope lab which nailed Sunita helped the middle-distance runner get back her medals. The company had also shown its willingness to set up a dope lab for the Hyderabad National Games but once again the Andhra Pradesh government didn’t react.

That meet, incidentally, was witness to the most rampant doping in India; specimen samples were piled high weeks after the Nationals were over, so medals were being taken back from tainted athletes for long afterwards. And that’s where Sahni believes a professional modern lab can yield better results. Besides that the present dope lab in Delhi is not accreditated by the International Olympic Committee which means its tests are not recognised by internationally.