Indian female relay champion 'a man'

An Indian women former international relay champion is in fact a man, according to her female partner who has accused her of rape and fraud.

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 last night in police custody in Calcutta while detectives sought court permission for a medical examination to establish her true gender.

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," Deputy Police Commissioner Subrata Bandyopadhyay told the Daily Telegraph.

The 26 year old relay runner told local reporters 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.