He awoke as a woman, but he went to bed as a man. When 20-year-old Mujahid was tricked into having gender reassignment surgery, his life drastically changed. Another man, working with physicians from a nearby medical college in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh, planned this.
The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) has staged protests in response to this shocking case, which has caused outrage.
The incident happened at Mansoorpur’s Begrajpur Medical College. On June 3, Mujahid, a 20-year-old Sanjak village resident, claimed that Omprakash had tricked him. It is said that Omprakash persuaded the medical college’s doctors to operate on Mujahid, removing his genitalia and forcing him to undergo a gender transition.
Mujahid says that over the previous two years, Omprakash has been harassing and threatening him. Mujahid was misled into believing he needed a hospital examination due to a medical condition. He went to the hospital with Omprakash accompanying him, to the room where the sex-change procedure and anesthesia were purportedly carried out.
“After he brought me here, I had surgery the following morning. I was told that I had been transformed from a boy to a girl when I regained consciousness,” Mujahid recalled.
It is reported that Omprakash informed him that he would now have to live with him and that no one in his community or family would accept him going forward. In addition, Omprakash threatened to murder Mujahid’s father and take his portion of the family’s land.
“He said, ‘I changed you from a man to a woman and now you have to live with me. I have prepared a lawyer and prepared a court marriage for you. Now I will shoot your father and the land of your share will be named after me and then I will sell it and go to Lucknow’,” Mujahid recalled.
Following the event, BKU employees protested at the medical college under the direction of farmer leader Shyam Pal, calling for prompt action against Omprakash and the implicated doctors. The protesters have received assurances from the police that a comprehensive investigation will be carried out.
Shyam Pal believes that this incident is indicative of a bigger problem with organ trafficking in the hospital. He asserted that a racket is in place at the hospital that targets people for gender reassignment and organ harvesting without their consent.
“It is really regrettable. We demand that this unlawful body-parts trade be put an immediate end. Mr. Pal insisted that “everyone involved, including the hospital administration and those who enabled this crime, should be held accountable and punished.”
Mr Pal said that Mujahid’s father had filed a police complaint on June 16, which led to Omprakash’s arrest. However, Mr Pal criticised the police for their lax attitude and called for stricter action. He also demanded compensation of at least ₹ 2 crore for Mujahid, whose life has been severely affected by this traumatic incident.
“All the allegations made by the family and the protestors will be thoroughly investigated, and appropriate legal actions will be taken against those found guilty,” Senior Muzaffarnagar police officer Ramashish Yadav said.
Besides arresting Omprakash, the police are also investigating the hospital staff involved in the case.
