New Delhi: In an interesting development, the Ministry of Youth Affairs of Sports on Saturday has decided to enquire whether a senior official of the Indian Weightlifting Federation (IWF) accepted money to select Shailaja Pujari in the team for the Beijing Olympics.

The ministry has also directed the IWF to select Monika Devi for the Olympics instead of Shailaja, who was accused by a section of the federation officials of paying five lakh rupees to secretary Baldev Raj Gulati to get selected in the team. So much so, the ministry has also asked the IWF to cancel the repeat trials that was scheduled at Pune on July 29.

It was alleged that Shailaja was selected by the IWF ahead of Monika Devi, who won the lone Olympic berth for India during the Asian championships in Japan in April-May.

In a letter to Gulati, the ministry said: “Reports against your involvement for taking advance money for inclusion of a player in the Olympic squad and other serious manipulations (that) took place in the selection trails for giving undue advantage to a lifter needs to be looked into.”