Harassment of coach Santhi: notice sent to magazine, sports official

The South Regional Representative to the National Council for Transgender Persons (NCTP), a statutory authority under the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Gopi Shankar, based in Madur

The South Regional Representative to the National Council for Transgender Persons (NCTP), a statutory authority under the Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Gopi Shankar, based in Madurai, has taken suo moto cognizance of continuous harassment of athlete and coach Santhi Soundarajan on the grounds of her gender identity/ expression by the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDATN) coach Abraham Rajan.

Gopi Shankar has issued a notice to the publisher of the Tamil magazine Kumudam in connection with a ‘defamatory’ story recently published in the magazine against Santhi Soundarajan and raising ‘false allegations’ concerning her gender identity. A notice has been issued separately to the Member Secretary, Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu urging the body to take departmental action against coach Abraham Rajan for making ‘false comments and complaints’ against the gender identity of Santhi.

In the notice issued to the Tamil magazine, Gopi Shankar sought an apology from the Kumudam publishing house for publishing ‘false allegations’ in the form of an article that had appeared in the magazine without knowing Santhi’s side of the story.