Pinki Pramanik plans defamation case against cops, prosecutor

Asian Games gold medallist athlete Pinki Pramanik, described as a male in a police charge sheet which also accused her of rape, said on Wednesday that she would file a defamation case against investigators and a government lawyer.

"Very soon I will slap a defamation case against the police and the additional public prosecutor for defaming me and trying to outrage my modesty," said the 26-year-old athlete, who was formally charged Monday following a complaint from her former live-in partner that Pinki was "actually a male" who had "repeatedly raped" her.

Questioning how police got access to her medical report which was supposed to be in the custody of the court, Pinki said: "It is surprising that the police have filed the charge sheet based on the medical report." (Pinki says cops driving her to commit suicide. Your comments?)

She also said the allegations from the complainant seemed to have been accepted in the charge sheet without verification.

"This shows the police are very biased in the case. In fact they have been biased from the very beginning. I will fight my case in the court," said the middle distance runner.

The police document filed in the court of the chief judicial magistrate at Barasat town in North 24 Parganas district cited the opinion of a seven-member medical board constituted to confirm the athlete's gender in June.

Pinki is now on bail.

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

The athlete was arrested June 14 and remanded in judicial custody the next day after the her live-in partner, a divorcee and a mother of one, filed a police complaint.

Pinki, who retired from athletics three years ago, won gold in the 4x400 metres relay at the 2006 Asian Games in Qatar's capital Doha. Pinki was a silver medallist at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games the same year.