When you tell her she’s been dubbed the next PT Usha, she looks you in the eye and says you are wrong. “I am much better.’’

The confidence has its reasons. Pinki Paramanik, 19, has just won three gold medals last month at the South Asian Federation (SAF) games in Colombo.

More reasons: She has won 11 golds, three silvers and two bronze medals for India since 2002. And most of them came after her return to tracks after being arrested in 2004 for alleged Naxal links.

At Colombo, Pinki won gold medals in 400m and 800m, finishing in 53.80 seconds and 2 minutes 3.81 seconds. Her third gold came in the women’s 4X400m relay.

It’s been a long and winding track from 2004 when the 17-year-old from West Bengal’s Purulia district was arrested after the police found a pistol in her kit. She was released after they arrested the young men who she said had planted the weapon. However, the police at that stage did not rule out her links with the Naxals.

The arrest halted her race but only for a short while. “Those were tough times and I have put that behind me now,’’ she says. The year after the incident, Paramanik was barred from entering the Centre for Excellence of the Sports Authority of India, Kolkata and she dropped out of the training camps. The family and the village stood by her. “My father was my biggest support through it,’’ says Paramanik who does not like her village, Susia, being known as associated with Naxalites. The village of 300 people, she says, is like a family and gives her a hero’s welcome each time she returns. “Last time the entire village came to receive me at the station and sang songs all the way to my house,’’ she says.

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