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Coach asked to produce gender cert, probe on

The incident allegedly happened on Sunday morning when athletic coach Santhi Soundarajan was summoned for an inquiry in connection with a case registered in 2018 against her fellow coach Rajan Abraham.

Coach asked to produce gender cert, probe on
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Chennai

Senior officials of the city police are probing allegations of a women athletic coach of Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) that she was forced to produce a gender certificate declaring that she was a woman by Vepery Assistant Commissioner and subordinates.

The incident allegedly happened on Sunday morning when athletic coach Santhi Soundarajan was summoned for an inquiry in connection with a case registered in 2018 against her fellow coach Rajan Abraham.

According to activist Gopi Shankar, Vepery Assistant Commissioner Harikumar demanded that Santhi should submit a medical report declaring that she is a female. “Police or court have no right to question gender identity and expression. I urge the concerned authorities to take cognisance of the issue and direct immediate and necessary action against the cops involved,” said Gopi Shankar, in a note. According to Gopi Shankar, there are several women sportspersons who fall into the category of intersex, which does not mean that they are not women.

However, the Assistant Commissioner denied the allegations and added he summoned Santhi Soundarajan since the case has been posted for hearing in March and he had to reopen the case after taking over as Vepery AC recently.

“She was properly summoned and inquiry was conducted. We informed her that her allegations of caste-based discrimination by the fellow coach were not made out during the investigation and that the case will still be pursued for woman harassment charges,” said Harikumar.

A senior police official confirmed that they were in the know of the allegations and added that an internal inquiry has been ordered on the matter.

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