Sexually abused man writes to President seeking mercy killing
: A 24-year-old man from Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district has sought President Ramnath Kovind’s permission for death through mercy killing as he was unable to bear the trauma of being a sexual abuse victim.
“Living the life of a survivor (of sexual abuse) has not been easy at all. Even today, I fight back the countless nightmares that are a reminiscence of my bitter past. I request your permission for euthanasia/mercy killing to relieve me from the pain of reliving my past by being a victim of such horrific incident,” the man said in his letter addressed to the President on Wednesday.
The man told HT he had been sexually abused by his cousin first, when he was eight years old and again by his teacher when he was in school.
“I brought this to the notice of my parents and they were shocked as they had heard of rapes of girls and women, but not of boys. They did not file any police complaint then, as they thought nobody would believe if they complained of a boy being raped. Moreover, we belong to a traditional and orthodox family and hence, my parents were afraid of the social stigma if we went public,” he said.
The young man, now a graduate in biotechnology, said he had tried to forget the past, but the nightmarish experiences still continued to haunt him as he started reading about more such incidents of sexual abuse of boys.
“I realised that mine was not an isolated case, but incidents of boys being subject to child sex have been occurring very frequently. Unfortunately, the sexual abuse of boys has not been getting so much prominence as the incidents against girls. So, I have decided to speak up,” he said.
In his letter, a copy of which was also sent to Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, the youth said he was hoping that the situation would change over time and the society will be a better place to live in.
“However, the current state of affairs in the country remains in deep dismay as countless young boys are getting raped and abused almost every passing day. Many of them go unreported, unlike girls as people think boys are not so vulnerable to such acts,” he said.
Asked why he wished for mercy killing as only people with terminal illness ask for it to have a painless death, the young man said the condition of a boy who was sexually abused was also no less traumatic. “I don’t want to commit suicide and end up being a criminal. I, too, want a painless death,” he said. He said his father, had passed away recently and his mother had given him consent for his fight against child sex abuse.
The body of Sharath Koppu, an Indian student who was killed during an attempted robbery in Kansas City in the US last week, arrived here on Wednesday night.
The body arrived at the Rajiv Gandhi International airport and former Union minister Bandaru Dattatreya was among those who paid homage to the departed soul.
According to authorities in Kansas, Koppu, 25, hailing from Telangana, was fatally shot during a suspected incident of robbery at a restaurant where he worked. He died shortly after being taken to a hospital on Friday.
Kansas City police announced a $ 10,000 reward for information leading to the suspect and released a brief video of the suspect inside the restaurant moments before the shooting.
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