As India’s major drug offenders, Anti-Doping Bill to be tabled in Monsoon session re-introduced

New Delhi: On a day when India continued to top the Athletics Integrity Unit’s (AIU) global list of doping offenders, the sports ministry assured that a national anti-doping bill would be tabled in the upcoming monsoon session of Parliament.India tops the AIU list with 162 dopers, ahead of Kenya (148) and Russia (60). It includes persons serving sentences for doping offenses based on a positive test for prohibited substances and/or illicit handling, evading testing, trafficking or missing persons.Under the amended law, trafficking in banned substances and their distribution to athletes will be punishable by up to five years in prison.“Until now, athletes have been penalized for such offences. They have received suspensions or bans. But we must go after those who supply them with these substances, including doctors,” said a ministry official.The public consultation period for the amended bill ended on June 18. The Monsoon Session of Parliament begins on July 20.The amendment is similar to one proposed in 2018. At that time, a four-year jail term and a fine of Rs 2 lakh were sought for organized crime syndicates and anyone found guilty of supplying banned substances to athletes.But the provisions were dropped from the bill, which was eventually passed in 2022 and amended again last year, as the government sided with the idea of ​​”preventive legislation, rather than punitive legislation”.India has also topped the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) world list for the past three years.