The Asian Games gold medallist athlete Pinki Pramanik, accused of being a male, was granted bail by a court of Kolkata on Tuesday.

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 was 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 and 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 purportedly 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 4x400m relay a 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.