India's Commonwealth weightlifting champion Ravi Kumar Katulu handed 4-year ban for doping

Indian weightlifter Ravi Kumar Katulu has been handed a ban for four years after failing a drug test, a top anti-doping official told AFP on Tuesday.

The Commonwealth Games weightlifting gold medalist is tested positive for Ostarine, media reports said. Ostarine helps increase muscle mass though is not available to the public.

"Ravi Kumar has been suspended for four years," National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) director general Navin Agarwal told AFP.

Ostarine is a "selective androgen receptor modulator", or SARM, which according to doping experts is used as an alternative to steroids. 

No country has yet allowed its use as a medicine but is widely available on the black market.

The ban comes as a new blow for the scandal-tainted Indian weightlifting, which has been restricted to only four Olympic places -- two men and two women -- in Tokyo next year because of its high number of doping cases.

The 31-year-old Kumar had won the 69kg title at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and a silver in 2014 (77kg).