In a rare case, the National Anti-Doping Appeal Panel (NADAP) has reduced athlete Parvej Khan’s suspension to five years on technical grounds.

Parvej had been suspended for six years for two anti-doping violations by a NADA disciplinary panel on August 6, 2025.

Since Parvej was notified about his three whereabouts failures committed in 2023 on November 24, 2024, and about his adverse analytical finding (AAF) for EPO on August 28, 2024, NADAP said, as per the Article 10.9.3.1 of anti-doping rules, these two “shall be considered together as one single first Anti-Doping Rule Violation.”

The NADAP said Parvej would carry out the more severe sanction (four years) for the AAF besides an additional one-year sanction on the basis of Aggravating Circumstances.

Since Parvej was provisionally suspended, his suspension would be carried out from August 28, 2024.

While welcoming the reduction in sanction, Parvej’s counsel Saurabh Mishra said since the athlete admitted his EPO violation, he was entitled to another one-year reduction in sanction.

Mishra was concerned about the one-year suspension imposed on Parvej on the ground of Aggravating Circumstances.

“These circumstances were neither mentioned in the Notice of Charge nor pleaded by NADA during the proceedings. The athlete was never put on notice that such an enhancement was being sought, nor was he given an opportunity to defend himself against it. This raises a fundamental question of procedural fairness,” said Mishra, adding the NADAP order would be challenged at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).