Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu has received a four-year ban for a doping violation ©Getty Images

India's National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) has handed weightlifter Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu a four-year ban after she tested positive for banned substance drostanolone.

Chanu was tested during the National Games held in Gujarat in September and October last year.

It resulted in the 29-year-old returning an adverse analytical finding for the anabolic-androgenic steroid that is prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

The drug's primary medical use is to treat advanced inoperable cases of breast cancer in women, but it can be taken as a performance enhancer as it stimulates accelerated muscle growth.

The verdict means that she will be stripped of her National Games silver medal.

"I have already experienced this, why will I dope again and go through this again?" Chanu told PTI.

"I don't know if I want to appeal or not.

"In both cases, I will lose.

"If I appeal it will take time to clear my name and I will lose out on the chance to qualify for the Olympics and Asian Games.

"If I don't, I will be suspended."

Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu was previously banned by the International Weightlifting Federation in 2018 before the charges were dropped two years later ©Getty Images
Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu was previously banned by the International Weightlifting Federation in 2018 before the charges were dropped two years later ©Getty Images

Chanu, a double Commonwealth Games gold medallist at 48 kilograms and then 53kg, was also banned by the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) in 2018 after testing positive for testosterone in a United States Anti-Doping Agency test in 2017.

The charges were dropped by the IWF in 2020, however, due to "non-conformities" in the handling of her sample.

"I have been in this situation before," she said

"But I am not able to understand how this has happened.

"Since that incident, I have been very careful about my diet and everything. 

"I check my supplements carefully."

Chanu has been one of India's most successful weightlifters over the past decade.

Besides her gold medals at the 2014 and 2018 Commonwealth Games, Chanu won bronze at the 2011 Asian Championships and has three titles at the Commonwealth Championships, in 2012, 2015, and 2017.

Last year, Indian track and field Olympians from Tokyo 2020 Shivpal Singh, Kamalpreet Kaur and Dhanalakshmi Sekar were all caught doping in addition to Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Navjeet Kaur Dhillon and Aishwarya Babu.