PATIALA: In an incident that raises suspicion of a doping cover-up ahead of the Commonwealth Games, four top Indian athletes who skipped a mandatory test for banned substances and were quietly thrown out of a training camp, were allowed by sports officials to surreptitiously continue their training.

They even competed in the inter-state meet -- the final selection trials for the Games -- held earlier this month.

The athletes are part of the Commonwealth Games core group at the Netaji Subhas National Institute of Sports in Patiala. According to sources, the four went missing from their hostels at NSNIS when officers from the National Anti-Doping Agency arrived for an out-of-competition test before the Asian All-Star meet held in New Delhi on July 29-30. Subsequently, the Athletics Federation of India quietly pulled up the erring athletes and they were asked to leave the camp.

As per NADA rules, three missed tests within a period of 18 months constitutes a violation which results in an athlete being banned.

A top official of the anti-doping agency confirmed that four athletes were absent during the surprise test conducted at NSNIS. "The coach produced leave letters for those athletes. Later, they were asked to leave the camp," he said.

However, he couldn't confirm whether the same athletes had been absent during previous tests as well.

Surprisingly, the four continued their training without any hindrance at NSNIS along with other campers. At the inter-state meet, at least two of them excelled and put themselves in contention for a place in the Indian squad for the Commonwealth Games.

AFI's officiating secretary Ravinder Chaudhary, however, denied anything of this sort happened in the camp. "None of our athletes missed the test and we haven't taken action against anyone. You can check with the chief coach," he said.

With the AFI selection committee meeting in New Delhi, the squad for the Commonwealth Games could be announced on Wednesday. It remains to be seen how many of these athletes are finally selected.

A source told TOI that doping continued to be a menace in Indian athletics despite agencies such as NADA. "In fact, one day somebody collected all the syringes used by athletes and put the basket in front of the NSNIS hostel but the authorities dismissed it as medicines used in recovery. If you test all the probables now, quite a few will test positive," he added.

The story was no different during a similar surprise test at the camp in SAI South Centre in Bangalore. "Several athletes fled to safe havens when NADA officials came last month. And there was no action against the erring athletes," a source said.

He said the tests in Bangalore were conducted by a single official. "He didn't insist on identity cards. And it is quite possible that he was duped into collecting the wrong samples. We also heard about coaches collecting leave letters from athletes to produce before the NADA officials," the source added.

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