New Delhi:
Pinki Pramanik, age 26, is in a jail in Kolkata after being accused of rape by the woman she lived with. Her cell is near the men's section because the athlete, who has won several medals for India, is undergoing tests to determine whether she is really a man.
Here are 10 big facts on the shocking treatment she's being given:
Pinki was arrested on June 14 after she was accused of being a man by her live-in partner, a 30-year-old estranged woman, who also alleged she had been raped.
Photographs of the policemen taking her to jail show her being groped by one of them.
On Thursday, the Inspector General of the police visited her in jail.
Activists say the government is doing nothing to protect a woman in police custody. An MMS that shows her naked, undergoing a gender determination at a government hospital, has been leaked online.
I have not received anything from Pinki Pramanik's family, nor from any sports organisation. Nobody has talked to me or written to me saying that what is going on is illegal", state sports minister Madan Mitra said today.
The State Human Rights Commission has ordered the government to investigate the alleged "inhuman torture" of Pinki in police and jail custody and submit a report within two weeks. "Prima facie, it's a case of human rights violation," the Commission has observed.
The Calcutta High Court has today ordered the government to investigate whether this is a case of human rights violations and to explain its progress in her case in two weeks.
Activists want to know why Pinki has not been granted bail and why she was made to take three gender determination tests at different state hospitals which proved inconclusive because the hospitals did not have the needed facilities.
A blood sample from her was collected yesterday and has been sent for tests.
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.
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