‘She did not reveal her whereabouts’: JFI chief confirms withdrawal of CWG Tulik Maan, NADA hearings next
NEW DELHI: India’s judo campaign at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow has suffered yet another setback. A day after 73kg judoka Arun Kumar was disqualified after failing a doping test, CWG silver medalist Tulika Maan was pulled from the Glasgow Games after being scrutinized for alleged whereabouts errors.TimesofIndia.com spoke to Judo Federation of India (JFI) president Mukesh Kumar, who confirmed the development and said the matter was being investigated.Confirming the development, Kumar said, “She didn’t tell us about her whereabouts. We are verifying it. As per the rules, an athlete has to report her whereabouts to NADA. She didn’t.”“She was called to the NADA office. She went there. We will talk to her. We will see what decision comes. But as an athlete, she had to reveal her whereabouts so that the testing could be done on time,” he said.Tulika is one of India’s best hopes for a judo medal at the Glasgow Games. She won a silver medal in the women’s over 78 kg category at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. The Indian judo competition at the 2026 Games is scheduled from July 31 to August 2.The development comes just a day after 73kg judoka Arun was declared ineligible following an adverse analytical finding in an out-of-competition test conducted by the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA).Arun has enjoyed a rapid rise in recent years. He won gold at the 2023 Macau Junior Asian Cup, followed by another gold at the 2025 Taipei Asian Open and a bronze medal at the Hong Kong Asian Open. Earlier this year, he finished seventh at the prestigious Grand Slam in Tashkent to earn his first selection for the Commonwealth Games.
When Indian athletes faced similar cases
This is not the first time that an Indian sportsperson has faced a lawsuit over residency errors.Sprinter Hima Das was given a 16-month retrospective suspension by NADA after recording three whereabouts failures in a 12-month period (the suspension ran from 22 July 2023 to 21 November 2025).Boxer Parveen Hooda was suspended by the International Testing Agency (ITA) due to whereabouts errors (suspension lasted from April 2022 to March 2023). She was also stripped of her 2022 Asian Games bronze medal.
What is the residency system?
The residency system is an anti-doping rule that allows authorities to conduct random, unannounced out-of-competition testing on elite athletes.Athletes who are part of the Registered Testing Pool (RTP) must submit their location details via WADA’s ADAMS platform or the Athlete Central app every three months.They must also provide a fixed 60-minute time slot each day during which they will be available at a specific location for testing.If the DCO visits during this one-hour period and cannot find the athlete, it may be recorded as a missed test. Failure to submit or update location details is known as submission failure.Under the anti-doping rules, any combination of three missed tests or failed records during a rolling 12-month period is considered an anti-doping rule violation and can result in a ban of one to two years.
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