I am shocked, don’t have links with drug dealer: Vijender

 

New Delhi, 08 Mar 2013 (PTI): Stunned by allegations that he has links with a drug dealer caught by the Punjab Police, star Indian boxer Vijender Singh today said the "ridiculous charges" would be proved wrong in investigations.

The former world number one, who gave India its first Olympic medal in boxing in 2008, said he was shocked to hear his name crop up after his wife’s car was found outside a flat in Zirakpur from where 26kg of heroin worth Rs 130 crore was recovered.

"I am shocked. I am in Mumbai right now for work. My friends dropped me at the airport in my wife’s car. I don’t know how it reached outside that Zirakpur flat," Vijender, an Asian Games gold-medallist, told PTI over phone.

"My friends could have used that car after dropping me but I don’t understand how can my name be dragged into this. The police has already clarfied that nothing was recovered from the car. And they have not even contacted me," he said.

The heroin was recovered from an NRI’s house in Zirakpur, on the outskirts of Chandigarh yesterday. Fatehgarh Sahib SSP Hardial Singh Mann said the police had recently arrested an NRI Anup Singh Kahlon and his associate Kulwinder Singh in connection with the drugs recovery.

Kahlon has reportedly claimed links with Vijender and his close friend Ram Singh, who is also a national-level boxer. But Vijender rejected the allegations.

"If he is a drug peddler then how can his word be trusted. If I abuse drugs, won’t I be caught in dope tests? Even now, I am open to being tested if it is required," he said."I am sure by evening everything will become clear. I have no links to any of the persons being named by the police," he added.

Earlier, the suspects were presented in a court which remanded them in police custody for four days.

The police had recovered Rs 13.86 lakh from them.

As per the SSP, the NRI, along with his family, has been living in Canada since 1995. As per the police, he was a truck driver and later developed ties with drug mafia in the European countries and the US.

The NRI used to visit India frequently and set up a drug supplies network in the country, said the SSP.