Pinki Pramanik's gender test report reaches hospital

The chromosome pattern test report (Karyotyping) of Asian Games gold medalist Pinki Pramanik to determine her gender was on Monday, received and would be sent to a court at Barasat in North 24-Parganas district on Tuesday.

The former middle-distance runner, who had won the 4x400m relay gold in the 2006 Doha Asiad, has been accused of being a male, and is currently in judicial custody for alleged rape.

Without disclosing the medical facility where the tests were done, superintendent of the SSKM Hospital Prof Tuhin Kanti Ghosh told PTI: "We have received the report today."

"We have not opened the sealed envelope containing the report as the matter is sub-judice. The report is with the chairman of the medical board (Prof B N Kahali) and we will send it to the chief judicial magistrate of the Barasat Court tomorrow."

Prof Kahali, the head of the department of forensic state medicine, heads an 11-member medical panel in the SSKM Hospital.

Asked if the report was conclusive, Prof Ghosh said:"It's a final report which will substantiate the clincial tests earlier conducted (at the SSKM Hospital on June 25)."

After the tests proved inconclusive with the Karyotyping facilities not available in the state-run hospital, the court on June 29 had directed the authorities to collect the athlete's blood sample.

Pinki's blood sample was taken once again on July 2 and sent to a hospital reportedly in Hyderabad.

The retired middle-distance runner was arrested on June 14 after she was accused of being a male by her live-in partner, a 30-year-old estranged woman, who also alleged she had been raped.

She is currently in judicial custody till July 12. Pinki, after her arrest, was initially taken to a private nursing home in Barasat under police custody and later to the Barasat General Hospital for gender tests but the reports were inconclusive as the the athlete was subsequently referred the SSKM Hospital.

But gender of the athlete could not be determined at the state-run hospital as the facility for the chromosome pattern test was unavailable.

An MMS clipping purpotedly of the athlete showing her in the nude was circulated as a PIL was moved in the Calcutta High Court on July 6.
The court directed the West Bengal government to file an affidavit within two weeks on the  progress of the investigation.

The West Bengal Human Rights Commission also stepped in, directing the home, health and police departments to inquire into the alleged "inhuman torture" on the athlete in police and jail custody.

The Eastern Railway middle-distance runner had won a 4x400m relay gold in the 2006 Doha Asiad and a silver in the same event at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games. Pinki bagged three gold medals in the 2006 SAF Games in Colombo when she won the 400m, 800m and 4x400m relay events.