Govt to dig deeper in dope hole

‘‘I briefly went through the terms of reference and we (the committee members) will meet soon to decide how we should approach the issue,’’ said Sharma. The other members of the committee include Prof YK Gupta, Department of Pharmacology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Director in the ministry S S Rana and Director General of Sports Authority of India (SAI).

Sharma, while admitting that there cannot be smoke without fire, said that unfortunately doping among our sportspersons has been alarmingly increasing bringing bad name to the country. ‘‘Similar cases had been brought to our notice when I was secretary and, on our part, we had taken measures to arrest them. But obviously people have found several other ways and the malady is continuing.’’

As a first step, the committee will dig deep into the testing methods at the SAI lab and whether or not there was any goof-up before the athlete was cleared for Busan.

The committee has been vested with the powers to summon the various doctors (both foreign and Indian), manager, the athlete, her personal coach and others, including those from the federation. Asked if the committee will take cognisance of the Amateur Athletics Association of India (AAFI)’s probe panel report, Sharma said the committee will take a decision on it when it meets.

‘‘I don’t see any harm if we pored over the report,’’ he said. However, sources in the ministy said they were yet to receive the Sushil Salwan panel report from AAFI.

‘‘But,’’ as Sharma said, ‘‘we have to begin from where it all began. From Patiala to New Delhi to Busan.’’ In other words, the committee will go into the circumstances leading to the entire Sunita Rani episode.

‘‘Our job is to pinpoint the issues relating to the Sunita Rani case and where things have really gone from bad to worse. We will also make recommendations to prevent recurrence of such instances,’’ he added. During its inquiry, the committee can also consult experts in sports medicine or any other related field that will help it prevent doping in sports. The ministry has given three months’ time to submit its findings.