Pinki Pramanik, who won a gold medal with India’s 2006 Asian Games 400 metre relay team and a silver medal at the Commonwealth Games, was taken into police custody in Calcutta while detectives sought court permission for a medical examination to establish her true gender, according to a report in The Daily Telegraph. She was arrested after her live-in partner filed an official complaint alleging that the athlete had promised to marry her as a man, but later changed her mind. In India, having sex with a woman after making a false promise of marriage is considered rape. “We have submitted an application to the court for a gender test and if the court gives permission it will be done. The complaint against her, by her partner, is rape and cheating. The athlete is telling that she had tests in the past. If convicted the sentence is three years in jail,” a deputy police commissioner said. The 26 year old relay runner said she had been the victim of a conspiracy and refused to submit to a gender test. She said she had undergone several tests in the pasts and would not submit to another. Her masculine features had raised suspicions concerning her true gender among male coaches, but her fellow athletes said she did not stand out as particularly masculine among other successful female competitors. Pramanik, who works as a ticket inspector with Indian Railways, retired from competitive athletics two years ago after she was injured in a car crash. She told local reporters the allegations amounted to an attempt to extort £3,500 from her. “I have undergone numerous tests in my career as an athlete. Why should I agree to more ridiculous tests?” she said.
