Pinki Pramanik charged with rape after tests say athlete is male

KOLKATA: Asian Games gold medallist Pinki Pramanik has been charged with rape and medical reports have confirmed that Pinki is a male.

Pinki Pramanik is a male, the police asserted in a district court on Monday citing a medical report and proceeding to charge the former athlete with raping a 32-year old woman, 'his' companion for the past two years.

"The medical board that examined Pinki Pramanik declared Pramanik as male having the ability to rape. Accordingly the police have also filed the chargesheet," Shantomoy Basu, the additional public prosecutor of Barasat Judge Court told HT on Monday.

The police of Salt Lake-Bidhannagar commissionerate submitted the chargesheet before the Barasat court.

The police chargesheet was based on the opinion of a seven-member medical board constituted to confirm the athlete's gender in June following allegations by her live-in partner that she was "actually a male" who had raped her repeatedly.

Additional Public Prosecutor Santomoy Bose said after the hearing: "I have seen the report...from the doctors' opinion it can be concluded that Pinki is a male."

The chargesheet also accused Pinki of torture, cheating, co-habiting with the promise of marriage and threat to the complainant not to disclose their relationship.

Pinki was later taken to a private nursing home for a medical check-up where the test reports claimed that the athlete was indeed a male. The athlete was taken to the Barasat district hospital and finally to the state-run SSKM Hospital here for the tests.

As SSKM Hospital did not have facilities for chromosome pattern test, the samples were sent to Hyderabad where the examination was done.

Pinki Pramanik was accused of being a male and arrested for allegedly raping a woman.

Pinki's live-in partner, a mother of one, accused her of being a male and raping her over a period, leading to her arrest.

Pinki was arrested June 14 and remanded to judicial custody by a court the next day after the athlete's live-in partner, a divorcee and a mother of one, filed a police complaint accusing the sportsperson of being a male who repeatedly "raped and tortured" her.

The woman who had alleged Pinki of raping her filed a new case of criminal breach of trust against the former athlete July 13.

Pinki was arrested June 14 and remanded to judicial custody by a court the next day after the athlete's live-in partner, a divorcee and a mother of one, filed a police complaint accusing the sportsperson of being a male who repeatedly "raped and tortured" her.

Several medical tests to determine Pinki's gender have been conducted and the reports of these tests have been submitted before a West Bengal court.

Pramanik, who retired from athletics three years ago, won gold in the 4x400 metres women relay at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha in Qatar. The runner was a silver medallist at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games the same year.