17-yr-old allegedly castrated by eunuchsBy: Naveeta Singh
April 19, 2005
When Shashidhar Sawant (name changed) accepted a glass of lassi from a eunuch, he didn’t realise that those same generous hands would torture him.
More than two months after he escaped from the clutches of a group of eunuchs who kidnapped and then castrated him, the 17-year-old managed to lodge a complaint with Turbhe police yesterday.
Shashidhar says that at least 26 other young men have suffered a similar fate and he wants to help save two or three other boys who are yet in the custody of the eunuchs.
Shashidhar explained that he used to watch a group of eunuchs dance outside Sanpada Railway Station.
‘‘They were dancing at a birthday celebration of a child and as I was watching them that day, one of them offered me lassi to drink.’’
‘‘When he returned home that evening, he too started dancing like those eunuchs saying, ‘Mein bhi hizra banoonga’,’’ his sister Sunita recalls.
The following day (November 24, 2004) as he was walking to his place of work, a taxi pulled up near him, two of the occupants pulled him and took him away.
‘‘Vimla and Subhash (two of the eunuchs) dragged me inside and they shut my mouth with a cloth,’’ says Shashidhar.
They took him to a slum in Nimonibagh, Govandi.
‘‘They pricked my ears and nose and made me wear a saree,’’ he says. ‘‘After that they forced me to beg and even indulge in prostitution.’’
Shashidhar suffered an accident on January 4, while begging at Juinagar signal, when he was hit by a tempo.
The eunuchs had him treated at Navi Mumbai Municipal Hospital. They warned him not to say anything to police.
He was taken back to Govandi and on January 8 they allegedly castrated him.
‘‘Mahesh Guru (a third of the eunuchs) caught my hands and then put a cloth in my mouth. Vimla cut my private parts with a knife,’’ he says.
‘‘They often threw hot water on my injured part and tortured me every day rather than take me to hospital.’’
It was on February 7 that he managed to call up his sister Sunita, who with the help of some friends rescued him the next day.
Shaken by the experience, Shashidhar has remained confined at home since his return. He has received treatment at Sion Hospital for a swellling in the abdomen.
However, that has not deterred him from trying to bring the culprits to justice.
‘‘They’ve already done this to 26 boys and I was the 27th. There are two or three boys in their custody and I want to save them,’’ he says.
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