Demanding an explanation from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over the alleged harassment of athlete Pinki Pramanik in police custody, a human rights group Wednesday said the government should have proper laws and infrastructure to look into such cases.
Asian Games gold medallist athlete Pinki Pramanik, who was accused of being a male and committing rape, was released Wednesday after 26 days in a West Bengal jail. The athlete alleged harassment in custody and said everything was “pre-planned” and that she was “framed”.
“Pinki has brought laurels to our country. She didn’t deserve such inhuman treatment. Due to lack of proper government infrastructure, it took so long for the (gender) tests to be concluded,” said Deboprasad Ray Choudhury, general secretary, Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR).
Ray Choudhury demanded “strict action against those police officials who harassed Pinki.”
“The government should see that such incidents are not repeated. We want an explanation from the government. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who herself holds the portfolio of home and health departments, should give the explanation,” he said.
Pinki came out of a correctional home, as jails are called in the state, in North 24-Parganas district after getting bail a day earlier. “An MMS clip of my medical examination, showing me in the nude, went viral online. All was pre-planned,” the athlete said.
Pinki, in judicial custody since June 15, was granted bail by the district and sessions judge of North 24-Parganas.
Pinki was arrested June 14 and remanded in judicial custody by a court the next day after the athlete’s live-in partner, a divorcee and a mother of one, filed a police complaint accusing the sports person of being a male who repeatedly “raped and tortured” her.
The report of a chromosomal test to determine Pinki’s gender has been submitted before the court by the premier state-run SSKM Hospital. An 11-member medical board was constituted to conduct the tests.
The demand for Pinki’s release and protests against the way the athlete was moved from one hospital to another for determining gender and the circulation of an MMS featuring the athlete in the buff had become shriller by the day.
Former players also condemned the treatment meted out to the gold medal winning athlete.
“I don’t think she deserved such kind of treatment. Nobody should forget that she has won gold medals for our country under extreme odds. Who will be responsible for the trauma and shock she has received,” said Surojit Sengupta, former international footballer.
“Who will pay for the dishonour and disrespect Pinki has endured and who will pay for her defamation… Anybody can file a complaint but without looking into the matter how can a person be treated so inhumanly?” asked former Bengal Ranji Trophy cricket captain Sambaran Banerjee.
Pinki, who retired from athletics three years ago, won gold in the 4×400 metres relay at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha in Qatar. Pinki was a silver medallist at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games the same year.