Quartermiler Nirmala Sheoran gets 8-year ban for second doping violation
New Delhi, Feb 10: India's quartermiler Nirmala Sheoran has been handed an eight-year ban by National Anti-Doping Agency's (NADA) Disciplinary Panel after she returned positive for a banned substance in a test conducted last year.
The 28-year-old Sheoran had returned to competition during the National Inter-State Championships in June last year in Bhubaneswar after serving a four-year ban for a dope offence in 2018.
In an order passed by the NADA's Anti-Doping Disciplinary Panel on December 27 and revealed only on Thursday, Sheoran has been banned for eight years, starting from August 7, 2023.
She had tested positive for "Anabolic Androgenic Steroids (AAS) and Testosterone (T)" according to the NADA website, which mentioned only her first name -- Nirmala.
Sheoran, the country's top quartermiler at one time, had won women's 400m gold in the 2017 Asian Championships in Bhubaneswar. But a doping offence committed in 2018 resulted to her stripping of that gold as her results from August 2018 to November 2018 were struck off.
She also ran in the 2016 Rio Olympics in 400m and women's 4x400m relay.
"Yes, the athlete in question is Nirmala Sheoran. She (Nirmala in NADA website) is the same athlete (as Nirmala Sheoran). It's an out of competition test and her sample was taken in Jaipur," an athletics team source told PTI on conditions of anonymity.
This would mean that her sample which returned positive was not related to the National Inter-State Championships but collected later.
The eight-year ban will also mean that Sheoran's career will be as good as over, unless she gets a favourable decision on appeal, if at all she takes that route.
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Jharkhand horror: Man kills live-in partner, chops body into 40 pieces
Ranchi (PTI): A 25-year-old man, who works as a butcher, allegedly strangled to death his live-in partner and chopped her body into 40 to 50 pieces in a forested area in Jharkhand’s Khunti district, police said on Wednesday.
The accused, identified as Naresh Bhengra, was arrested.
The matter came to light after around a fortnight after the killing when a stray dog was found with human body parts near Jordag village in Jariagarh police station on November 24.
Bhengra was in a live-in relationship with the deceased, a 24-year-old woman also from Khunti district, in Tamil Nadu for the past couple of years. Sometime back, he returned to Jharkhand, got married to another woman without telling his partner anything and went back to the southern state without his wife to join her.
"The brutal incident occurred on November 8 when they reached Khunti as the accused who had married another woman did not wish to take her home. Instead, he took her to a forest near his house at Jordag village in Jariagarh police station and chopped the body into pieces. The man has been arrested," Khunti Superintendent of Police Aman Kumar told PTI.
Inspector Ashok Singh who investigated the case said the man worked in a butcher shop in Tamil Nadu and was expert in slicing chicken.
“He admitted chopping the body parts of the woman into 40 to 50 pieces before leaving those in the forest for wild animals to feast on. The police recovered several parts on November 24 after a dog in the area was seen with a hand," Singh told PTI.
Singh said that the woman, who was unaware of his marriage, pressured him to return to Khunti. After reaching Ranchi, they boarded a train on November 24 and headed to the man's village.
"Under a plan, the man took her to Khunti in an autorickshaw near his home and asked her to wait. He returned with sharp weapons and strangulated her with her dupatta after raping her. He then cut the body into 40 to 50 pieces and left for his home to live with his wife," Singh said.
The woman, however, had informed her mother that she had boarded a train and would be living with her partner, the police officer said.
Following the recovery of body parts, a bag was also found in the forest with the murdered woman's belongings including her Aadhaar card. The mother of the woman was called at the spot and she identified her daughter's belongings.
"The mother suspected the man behind the crime who after being nabbed by the police admitted to chopping the woman into pieces," the official added.
The incident has sent shockwaves among people in the region, with the Shraddha Walker murder case of 2022 still fresh in their memory.
Walker was killed by her live-in partner who chopped her body into pieces before dumping them in the jungle in South Delhi’s Mehrauli.
