On 9th December, a court in Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly district sentenced an alleged kinnar (transgender/eunuch) who raped a girl to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment. The court has also imposed a fine of Rs 12,000 on the man who misled people by pretending to be a kinnar. On 29th March 2022, Fareen Ahmed kidnapped a 7-year-old girl in the name of giving her cucumbers and raped her.
According to reports, the hearing of the case took place in the Bareilly POCSO (Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act) Special Court. Fareen kept asserting his innocence by claiming that he was a kinnar. His gender was tested on Judge Uma Shankar’s order and the results showed that he was male. It was also discovered that he had been deceiving people for a long time by posing as a kinnar. He started crying during the hearing as his truth was exposed.
The perpetrator requested a lighter sentence from the court. However, the prosecution referred to the crime as serious and demanded a stiff punishment from the court. Fareen was awarded 20 years of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 12,000 after the arguments from both sides were concluded. The jail term would be extended for one more year if he failed to pay the amount. Fareen was immediately taken into custody by the police and sent to jail. The fine amount will be given to the little girl.
On 9th April 2022, the girl’s mother reported to the police that her daughter had gone to the accused’s aunt’s house on 27th March from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. to watch television. She was bleeding from her private areas when she returned from the house after which she took her to the doctor. She then received treatment for ten to twelve days. The girl’s mother filed a First Information Report (FIR) at the local police station on 27th March, 2022, charging that he had sexually assaulted the youngster after persuading her to go to his residence to watch TV, per other reports.
“He raped her at his house and threatened to kill her if she dared to tell anyone about the incident. My daughter came home in a critical condition and was bleeding. She was admitted to a local hospital for two weeks,” the woman disclosed in the FIR (First Information Report).
On 22nd June, police filed a chargesheet. The defence attorney claimed that his client “belongs to a transgender background and wears women’s clothing and lives like a woman” in a petition submitted to the court on 24th August 2023. Additionally, in a statement, the culprit stated that he is “female transgender by birth and cannot commit rape.”
The prison administration validated his gender as “male” on 18th September of this year at SGPGI (Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences) Hospital in Lucknow, in accordance with the court’s decision. The prosecution presented the gender test report in court on 27th September. “The accused was booked under IPC (Indian Penal Code) sections 376AB (rape on a woman less than 12 years of age), 506 (criminal intimidation) and the POCSO Act. Judge Umashankar Kahar found the man guilty based on the girl’s testimony and the medical evidence and sentenced him to 20 years of rigorous imprisonment on Monday. A cash fine of Rs 12,000 was also imposed on the convict, which will be given to the girl as compensation,” stated Additional district govt counsel (ADGC) Rajeev Kumar. Section 6 of the POCSO Act was slapped against him.
The case was handled under “Operation Conviction,” according to Anurag Arya, Senior Superintendent of Police, Bareilly. “Manush Pareek, Additional Superintendent of Police, Bareilly, was the nodal officer and the case was heard on a fast-track basis,” he added.
