A trans-identified male has been sentenced to death by a Mumbai court after being convicted of raping a three-month old infant in a case that the judge has called “barbaric and inhuman.” The perpetrator, a “third-gender” individual whose identity has not been disclosed in order to protect the victim, abducted the baby girl, sexually tormented her, and murdered her in an act of vengeance against the family for not offering him the customary gift money, or “badhai,” after the child’s birth.
The man had asked the family for a new sari, ₹1,100 (approx. $13 USD), and a coconut, reported NDTV, as part of a long-practiced custom wherein hijras, or eunuch-transvestites, dance at weddings and childbirth ceremonies and perform ritual blessings in exchange for gifts. The tradition has been declining in recent years, while hijras’ participation in organized crime, particularly sex trafficking, has skyrocketed in the past decade.
The court was told that the man’s intent was to create terror within the community in order to secure more gift money from residents. Injuries found on the body of the totally defenseless infant were a reflection of “extreme brutality and depravity” said Aditee Kadam, special judge for cases under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO).
“Safety of a girl child is of paramount importance to society… Accused had planned to commit the crime and executed it meticulously,” the judge remarked, emphasizing that he buried the body in a marshy area in an effort to destroy evidence.
“The barbaric and inhuman manner of committing the offense made it the ‘rarest of rare case.’ It is a crime that would send a chill down the spine of every parent of a girl child, especially in a poor locality,” the court said.
Hijras, who are increasingly referred to as “transgender” locally and in news reports, have traditionally taken part in an initiation rite into the community called “nirvaan,” which involves the removal of the penis, scrotum, and testicles. For this reason, the term has previously been translated into English as eunuch or eunuch-transvestite, in accordance with their habit of wearing clothing typically associated with women.
Men belonging to the hijra community have documented connections to organized crime and sex trafficking. Since as early as 2009, associations between the male hijra demographic and the mafia have been on the rise, prompting accusations that male criminals are “masquerading” as transgender.
“They resort to human trafficking, by luring the unemployed and forcing them to undergo sex change surgery, and inducting them into beggary and sex work. Some of them run microfinance too. They keep the victims in their control by lending amounts at high interest rates,” said G. Krishna from state-sponsored NGO Suraksha Society in 2016.
In July of 2021, it was discovered that a group of hijra men in Assam organized a sex trafficking racket that involved forcibly castrating young boys and pimping them out in Delhi. The man behind the organization, named as “Pinky” in news reports, would take a percentage of the profits the boys collected after having been dressed as young girls and forced into prostitution.
The year prior, a similar instance was reported after a 14 year-old boy was abducted by a group of trans-identifying men, made to consume alcohol, and forced into prostitution. According to The Hindu, “The minor had been brainwashed by a group of transgenders into abandoning his family in Dindigul with the promise of funding his sex-reassignment surgery if he accompanied them to Tiruchi… The boy was made to consume alcohol, subjected to sexual assault, and forced into prostitution.”
In 2014, the Supreme Court of India passed a landmark ruling, the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) judgement, which granted trans-identified individuals the legal status of belonging to a “third gender,” neither male nor female, and granted sex self-determination in accordance with “gender identity.”
Last year, Reduxx reported on the case of a trans-identified male who was found guilty of raping a teenage boy in the Indian city of Thiruvananthapuram. Samson’s legal defense had reportedly attempted to use his “transgender” identity to argue his innocence, claiming he was now known as “Shefina” and had undergone “gender affirming medical procedures.” He was handed a seven-year prison sentence and reportedly detained in a women’s prison. The region of Kerala, where the assault was committed, is known as being one of the most “transgender-friendly” places in India.
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