Rio de Janeiro: The disciplinary panel of India's National Anti-Doping Agency (Nada) cut a sorry figure, here on Thursday night, when the ad-hoc division of the Court of Arbitration (CAS) set aside its decision to exonerate Narsingh Yadav of doping charges and slapped a four-year ban on the wrestler.

Making clear that it remained completely unconvinced by the Nada disciplinary committee's conclusion that Narsingh was a victim of sabotage, CAS said: "The CAS panel did not accept the argument of the athlete that he was a victim of sabotage and noted that there was no evidence that he bore no fault, nor that the anti-doping rule violation was not intentional. Therefore the standard four-year period of ineligibility was imposed by the panel."

Narsingh, though his Olympics dream over, is likely to approach the Wada for a review of the decision through his Bangalore-based sponsors.

The CAS also said: "Narsingh Yadav was sanctioned with a four-year ineligibility period starting today and that any period of provisional suspension or ineligibility effectively served by the athlete before the entry into force of this award shall be credited against the total period of ineligibility to be served.

"Furthermore, all competitive results obtained by Narsingh Yadav from and including 25 June 2016 shall be disqualified, with all resulting consequences (including forfeiture of medals, points and prizes)," CAS said.

"It is a matter of huge shame and shock for the Indian contingent here," admitted India's chef-de-mission Rakesh Gupta. "Narsingh was a potential medal winner. It is definitely a blow to India's Olympic movement... Sad that India would not be represented in the 74kg category later today," he added.

As the CAS decision came around 7pm local time on Thursday, the officials of the Indian contingent were faced with another problem. The organising committee informed the Indian officials that Narsingh should immediately vacate the Games Village as his accreditation stood cancelled because of the ban.

"We will move him to a nearby hotel and then put him on the first available flight. He can't stay here anymore since his visa expired with the cancellation of the accreditation," the official said.

The CAS decision on Narsingh came after a two-day hearing. On Thursday, the CAS heard the lawyers of both Narsingh and World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), who appealed against the Nada decision, for four hours before pronouncing the verdict.

While the officials of the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) and the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) continued to claim the wrestler was a victim of conspiracy, there were enough reasons to believe the issue was handled wrongly back in India.

Once the news came out last month that Narsingh had returned positive in an out of competition dope test, the WFI, led by its president and BJP Parliamentarian, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh swung into action to cover up the matter.

Since the WFI selected Narsingh ahead of Sushil Kumar for the 74kg freestyle spot and also won a court battle against the two-time Olympics over its choice, it chose to deal with the issue more as a matter of prestige than performing its primary duty to keep the sport clean.

Even when the case was being investigated by the disciplinary panel, which is an independent committee, the WFI chief went public saying he had requested the intervention of the prime minister in the matter. And, finally, when Narsingh was given a clean chit, Brij Bhushan said he thanked the prime minister for seeing the justice prevailed in this case.

Narsingh, on his part, continued to say he was innocent. "I am devastated at the decision of CAS. I have gone through so much over the last two months off the mat but the thought of fighting for the glory of the nation at the Games had kept me going."