A male predator has been sentenced to death by a Mumbai court after being convicted for the brutal murder of a three-month-old baby in a case that the judge described as “barbaric and inhuman.”
The pedophile killer is a male who claims to be a transgender “woman” and “identifies” as a “third gender.”
The perpetrator’s identity has not been disclosed in order to protect the victim.
According to prosecutors, the trans pedo abducted the baby girl, raped and sexually tormented her, before murdering the innocent child.
The killer defended his actions while admitting that he brutalized the infant in an act of vengeance against the family for not offering him the customary gift of 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.
The gift was 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 defenseless infant were a reflection of “extreme brutality and depravity” said Aditee Kadam, a 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,” the judge remarked before emphasizing that the killer buried the body in a marshy area in an effort to destroy evidence.
“Accused had planned to commit the crime and executed it meticulously.
“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 males “identifying” as transgender “women,” have traditionally taken part in an initiation rite into the community called “nirvaan.”
The ritual 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, due to 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,” said G. Krishna from state-sponsored NGO Suraksha Society in 2016.
“Some of them run microfinance too.
“They keep the victims in their control by lending amounts at high interest rates.”
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 “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.
The young boy was 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) judgment, 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, a trans-identified male, Sachu Samson, 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.
