Kerala woman severs alleged abuser’s genitals
23-year-old says she had been sexually assaulted by the spiritual teacher since she was a teenager
Aman had his genitals chopped off by a 23-yearold woman in Kerala, with the assailant claiming she had suffered years of abuse at the hands of her victim dating back to when she was in school.
The incident came to light in the state capital of Thiruvananthapuram on Friday night, after the gravely injured man was admitted to the Medical College Hospital in the city. Hospital authorities alerted the police, who immediately began investigations. The hospital said the man was stable and out of danger.
The man was identified as Sreehari, 54, alias Hari Swami, is also known as Gangeshananda Theerthapada Swami. He is attached to a spiritual retreat in nearby Kollam district.
Early reports indicate that the woman had told police that the man had been sexually abusing her since she was a teenager in secondary school.
She reportedly told police that she had been devastated by the years of abuse, and had chopped off her alleged tormentor’s genitals on Friday when he had attempted to violate her.
Police officials at the Pettah police station in Thiruvananthapuram have registered a case against the man, and have also taken into custody the woman’s mother.
Police suspect that the mother was an accomplice in the supposed spiritual mentor’s regular visits to their home and the abuse of her daughter.
The supposed spiritual mentor will also face charges under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, since he is alleged to have been abusing the woman from the time she was a minor.
At the hospital, plastic surgeons and urologists were reportedly working to reattach the man’s appendage.
The woman’s act led to numerous comments on social media, many of them drawing a parallel to a sequence in the Malayalam movie, 22 female Kottayam in which the heroine castrates her tormentor, and also to Lorena Bobbitt who chopped off her abusive husband’s penis in 1993.