Eunuchs held for castrating minor

BANGALORE: Their son looked too feminine when Venkataswamy and Muniyamma found him begging on Thursday, seven months after he went missing.
 
Sampigehalli police picked up Prabhakar, now rechristened Shilpa, from KR Puram junction on Friday morning. Two eunuchs were arrested for allegedly abducting, castrating and forcing the boy into the sex trade, police said.
 
The 16-year-old Peenya resident now has feminine features and voice, which police said was the result of estrogen hormone injections.
 
Police identified the arrested as Basavaraju alias Mangala (26), a native of Vajarahalli in Nelamangala taluk, and Madhu alias Baby (20), a native of Ranganathnagar in Tumkur. They were picked up from their house in Dasarahalli, where the boy was also residing.
 
Prabhakar had been allegedly abducted by three eunuchs from Dasarahalli on March 23 and was taken to Dr Naganna Hospital at Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh, where he allegedly underwent castration. He was also given estrogen hormone shots at this hospital.
 
Rantakar Shetty, inspector of Sampigehalli police station, said that on Thursday, Venkataswamy approached him saying that he had spotted his missing son at KR Puram. "We went there on Friday morning and found him with two others. We rescued him and later raided the house in Dasarahalli, from where the two accused were arrested," he said.
 
The police suspected it was not a normal missing-and-found case, and checked Prabhakar's school records. "We found out that he was a minor. If he was not a minor, there would have been no case against them," Shetty said.
 
Venkataswamy and his wife, residents of T Dasarahalli in Peenya, had lost all hopes of finding their son. "I was traveling in a bus with my wife and daughter, when I noticed three eunuchs at the junction. My wife said that one of them looked like our son. We did not want to alarm him and hence approached the police," he said.
 
On March 23, Prabhakar, a tailor at ESI Corporation, left home at 10 am as usual. He, however, did not return home. His parents waited till the next day before lodged a man-missing complaint.
 
Prabhakar said he was standing near Dasarahalli Cross, when three eunuchs approached him and asked if he wanted a highly paid job. "When I showed interest, they took me to a hospital in Andhra Pradesh. They said that I would get a job at the hospital. Meanwhile, they offered me water, after which I lost my consciousness. Later, I found myself at Dasarahalli Cross, where they left me and went away.''
 
Police said Prabhakar was taken to Dr Naganna Hospital in Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh, where he was injected with estrogen hormone and castrated. "He was in Andhra for a week, after which he went home and was picked up again by the eunuchs,'' said Shetty.
 
While his parents denied that Prabhakar returned a week after he went missing, his statements were different.
 
Prabhakar said that a eunuch met him at his house two days after his return and took him along. "One Santhu came home to meet me and we met Sushma, who works with Sangama (a sexual minorities human rights organization). I then underwent a counseling session, where they explained to me that I had been castrated and I would have to get into prostitution for a living. They explained about the use of condoms at a house in Gorguntepalya. They dressed me up like a woman. I was then taken with the group to various junctions where I had to beg. Then I was sent along with customers, who offered Rs300 for my services."
 
Prabhakar said that he couldn't run away from the eunuch since they had threatened to outcast him from his family. "They would heat a coin and place it on my forehead if I left their community," he said.
 
Prabhakar, the third son in a family of four children, had dropped out of 9th standard from the Government High School in Dasarahalli. "We do not know what to do. The doctors are saying that it will take a long time for him to be normal. We hope that he can live a normal life,'' Venkataswamy said.
 
The accused, who were suspected to have been castrated at a young age, denied their role in the crime. "I do not know why I have been arrested. We are born like this and so has Prabhakar. We have not abducted him. We do not indulge in any castration procedure," said Mangala, the main accused.
 
Mangala underwent a breast implant surgery at a city hospital for Rs65,000 on Friday. She completed her SSLC and later joined Sangama. Meanwhile, the other accused, Madhu, completed her II PUC and joined Sangama.
 
"We are working as community mobilisers at Sangama,'' Mangala said.
 
The accused have been charged under Sections 363(a), 365, 326, 307 and 365, 377. The other accused, including a financier Rajanna, eunuchs Nandini, Apoorva and Soumya, and Dr Naganna were absconding.
 
DCP (North East) Basavaraj Malagatti said a combing operation has been launched to see if minors have been abducted and castrated. "These eunuchs earn at least Rs300 to Rs500 per customer. The rate varies depending on the surgeries they have undergone. This is a huge racket, which needs to be busted. We have to investigate if more children have been victimised across the city,'' he said.
 
Dr AR Shekar, a senior plastic surgeon who was to examine Prabhakar, said that the estrogen hormone usually does not have much effect if the person has been castrated. "This is a complicated case and we will have to create a way wherein he can pass urine like men. His private organs cannot be reconstructed and the hormone effect will remain for six months. The feminine characteristics develop faster if the person is not castrated,'' he said.
 
Inspector Shetty said that the boy would be taken to Victoria Hospital, where he would undergo a surgery. "We are also taking money from the chief minister's fund for the surgery,'' he said.
 
SANGAMA TO CO-OPERATE WITH POLICE
When contacted, founder and director of Sangama, Elaverthi Manohar, said that the organisation will co-operate with the police if the boy is a minor. He, however, denied that the boy had been injected with estrogen.
 
"We do not encourage anybody below 18 years of age to join our organisation. Prabhakar's case was a very rare one," he said.

About castration…

Castration or removal of the testicles, known in medical terms as Inguinal Orchiectomy, is generally performed on old men suffering from prostrate gland cancer.  According to Dr Dilip Dhanpal, urologist, Sagar Hospital, doctors resort to castration only in the event of the disease spreading to the testicles.

However, castration is performed on young people when they want to undergo a sex change.  "A person needs to legally be an adult to undergo this process," Dr Dhanpal said. Apart from this, the patient has to undergo a series of psychological tests.

"The psychologist conducts a number of tests first, after which a psychiatrist takes over," the doctor said, adding that the surgery is done only after months of psychological
evaluation. "The castration itself is the job of a plastic surgeon," the urologist said.

(The name of the victim has been changed to protect his identity)

m_soumya@dnaindia.net