Indian female athlete 'a man' says ex-lover
by Sailendra Sil
ATHLETICS: KOLKATA, June 16 (AFP) - A female Indian athlete who won a
gold medal at the 2006 Asian Games appeared in court on Friday charged
with raping her former lover who has alleged that she is actually a man.
Pinki Pramanik was remanded in custody for 14 days to await trial on
allegations that she repeatedly raped her female live-in partner.
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In this photograph taken on August 25, 2006, Indian athlete
Pinki Pramanik celebrates after winning the women’s 400
metre final at the 10th South Asian Games in Colombo. A
female Indian athlete who has been charged with raping her
live-in partner has defended herself against claims that she
is actually a man. Pinki Pramanik, who won a 4x400m relay
gold medal at the 2006 Asian Games, was arrested late June
14, 2012, and taken to Baguiati police station northwest of
Kolkata. Police said her partner had accused her of repeated
rape and of being male, and that Pramanik had refused to
take a medical examination at a government hospital. AFP |
"The court magistrate asked the authorities to constitute a medical
board for determining the gender of Pinki," Prabir Roy, who heads the
police station on the outskirts of Kolkata where Pramanik was arrested,
told AFP.
Pramanik, who retired in 2007, declined to take a medical examination
at a government-run hospital when she was questioned on Thursday.
"She has brought false charges against me as I refused to give her
300,000 rupees ($5,400)," Pramanik told reporters from the back of a
police van before the court hearing. "Truth will prevail," she said.
Pramanik on Thursday had said she had undergone numerous medical
check-ups during her running career and added, "Why should I agree to
more ridiculous tests?"
"Pinki poses as a woman but is actually a man," the victim was quoted
as saying in Friday's Calcutta Telegraph. "She would assault me
regularly and raped me several times."
She also claimed that Pramanik had promised to marry her.
Pramanik, 26, won gold in the 4x400m relay at the Asian Games and a
silver for the same event in the 2006 Commonwealth Games before she
stopped competing the following year.
She grew up as the daughter of a poor farmer in rural West Bengal
state, about 140 miles (220 kilometres) from Kolkata and has worked as a
ticket inspector on the Indian railways.
"My daughter is innocent," Pramanik's mother, Puspa Pramanik, told a
Bengali TV channel. "I don't believe that she can do such a crime. I
hope she will get the right judgement."
Police said Pramanik, who had lived with her partner in Kolkata for
several months, will stand trial for rape, criminal assault, cheating
and criminal intimidation.
"We don't know whether it was a case of being male physically or
hormonal change over a period of time which can happen," Athletics
Federation of India secretary C.K. Valson told the Press Trust of India
news agency.
"We have to wait for the medical report and conclusion of the case."
In 2006, Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan failed a gender test and
was stripped of the silver medal she won in the women's 800m at the
Asian Games in Doha.
Santhi insisted along with her parents and coaches that she had done
nothing wrong.
Gender controversies are often caused by Congenital Adrenal
Hyperplasia (CAH) when females have male physical characteristics or
Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), when someone is genetically male
but their genitals may appear to be female.South African athlete Caster
Semenya won the women's 800m world championships in 2009 but was then
sidelined for 11 months during a probe into her gender.
She was cleared to compete and is a gold medal prospect at the London
Olympics.
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