Sports

No, For A Dozen Times

Arrows of guilt that for now Vijender dodges easily

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No, For A Dozen Times
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A boxer’s feints

  • Association with A.S. Kahlon Ram Singh introduced Vijender to Kahlon last year. The two have been seen together at Chandigarh and Delhi. Kahlon reportedly told the police that Vijender was a ‘client’ but couldn’t explain why he got Vijender expensive clothes and accessories. Vijender claims Kahlon is an acquaintance.
  • Telephone call records Vijender was in touch with Kahlon, calling him once at midnight, say the pol­ice. The number of calls to Kahlon has varied from eight to eighty, depending on the briefing. Vijen­der says others may have used his phone.
  • Ford Endeavour at Zirakpur Police claims the boxer’s suv was parked outside the Zirakpur flat of Kahlon. Vijender’s friends claim they had driven in it to the police station on being summoned. They were asked to leave the car there and have no clue how it reached Zirakpur. Police dismiss claim.
  • Consumption of heroin Ram Singh ‘confessed’ that both he and Vijender took heroin ‘12 times’ and ‘for fun’. Only a hair sample, claims the police, can prove such consumption, but not beyond three months. Vijender is accused of delaying tests to defeat the purpose. He says he doesn’t trust the Punjab Police, denies consuming drugs.

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Punjab Police’s record has been dodgy when it comes to seizure of heroin. The Punjab Police website actually shows a solitary haul of heroin, all of 100 grams, in August 2010. And this in a state groaning under rampant drug abuse, where 739 add­icts and peddlers were arrested in Jalandhar alone during the last seven months and where the BSF and the Narcotics Control Bureau claim to have seized no less than 200 kg of the opium-based drug in 2012.

Busting a heroin smuggling racket and sei­zure of heroin worth Rs 438 crore last month was, therefore, extraordinary. It inv­olved Canada-based Anoop Singh Kahlon and his associates in UK, Meerut, Jalandhar and Ludhiana. Most are former cops.

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Selective leaks on the involvement of Vij­ender Singh and his sparring partner, Ram Singh (who was arrested on April 3 for que­­stioning after days of ‘custody’), have raised questions. While the police was quick to claim in a press release that Kahlon had described the boxers as his ‘clients’, no other detail of Kahlon’s confession was shared.

The police, in all fairness, has been saying that it has no evidence of the boxer’s role in smuggling heroin, and nor did they uncover a culpable money trail that linked Vijender. While his car may have been used for transporting heroin by Kahlon, there is no evidence that the boxer knew about it.

Vijender may be guilty of nothing more serious than consuming illegal drugs, if at all. But his image has taken a smack, and sections of the media are looking askance.

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