new delhi olympic silver medallist rajyavardhan singh rathore on wednesday found himself at the centre of controversy with his name being dragged into a failed dope test that was conduced before the athens games way back in 2004 in the 2004 world cup in bangkok rathore had tested positive for a sample but the international shooting sport federation issf cleared him after the doubletrap ace returned negative for his b sample the surfacing of the issue after a gap of nine years has surprised rathore who felt it was the handiwork of the national rifle association of india nrai whose april 6 elections were declared null and void by the delhi high court last month nrai challenged the decision of the single judge who had allowed the plea of rathore that the election was a sham and be quashed as he was denied an opportunity to contest the events of today are a clear attempt to defame me to divert attention from hon hc decision of nullifying nrai elections to rake up a non issue from 9 years earlier is vendetta and a last ditch attempt to protect the stranglehold over the nrai rathore said in a statement in 2004 the highest officials of the issf were absolutely convinced about my credibility and had cleared me i am amazed at the resistance of a few nrai officials to allow free and fair elections these things wont stop likeminded athletes from trying to clean up indian sports the 43yearold colonel added claiming that rathores allegations were baseless nrai president raninder singh said that the body was with rathore in 2004 and continues to support him even now this is baseless all i can say is that we are always with the athletes we were with him back in 2004 and we are with him now raninder said raninder expressed surprise at the sudden surfacing of a nineyear old issue what is the relevance of all this it was the international body which has exonerated him then how has the issf let him off i can answer nothing about it we have stringent antidoping commitments raninder rubbished rathores claims that this was a ploy to deviate the attention ahead of the delhi hcs may 30 ruling why should i deviate from this we have to listen to court we will go according to the court of law there had been two verdicts one has come in our favour and one in his by a single bench we have filed an appeal to the double bench raninder said the nrai had filed an appeal in the delhi hc after the court declared the shooting bodys elections as null and void the procedure adopted for electing four representatives as life members on march 4 and april 6 nrai polls had been challenged by rathore taking note of rathores plea the court had said that denying him the right to contest elections was not justified which prompted the nrai to take legal discourse