LA STRANA MORTE DI CHANDINI

Chandini alias Nazir, a 22 year old hijra (transgender woman) died in mysterious circumstances on the night of December 1, 2002, Sunday in Bangalore, India.

On December 4th all English and Kannada newspapers sensationalised the death of Chandini. Her death was reported as a suicide. The reason given was that she set herself afire because her husband Gnanaprakash discovered her hijra identity and threatened to reveal it to his parents. They reported that Chandini deceived Gnanaprakash by hiding her hijra identity at the time of marriage. It is not at all surprising that the police also accepted in totality this version of what had happened as supplied by her husband.

The following is a brief accounting of the true events as ascertained by a fact-finding team comprising of representatives from the Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Karnataka; Alternative Law Forum (a group of lawyers); Sangama (a sexuality minorities' rights group); and Vividha (an autonomous group of sexuality minorities).

Chandini hails from Arsikere, Hasan and has been living in Bangalore for the past 5-6 years. Gnanaprakash initially met her in a hamam (bath houses where hijras live). After a six-month relationship and after much persuasion Chandini agreed to marry him. They married 16 months ago. There is photographic and videographic evidence of the marriage, and of it having been attended by many friends of Chandini from the hijra community. A week after the marriage, Gnanaprakash accompanied Chandini when she decided to go for Nirvan (Castration) in a hospital in Cuddapah, Andhra Pradesh. After the operation Chandini and her newly wed husband lived at Chandini's Guru (Hijra mother in the hijra community) Prema's house, for about a month.
Later they rented a house in Amrutha Halli, on the outskirts of Bangalore and lived together as husband and wife, for 5 months. He was often violent towards her and began to harass, beat her and took
away all the money that she was earning through sex-work. After six months of living together unable to bear his constant demands for money and to escape his torture, she left for Pune.

Chandini returned to Bangalore on November 7, 2002 and began living with her Guru in Amrutha Halli. Gnanaprakash learnt of her return to Bangalore and came to her Guru's house. In the absence of her Guru he forced her to leave with him. She had on her person 60 grams of gold jewellery and Rs. 50,000 in cash when she left. Gnanaprakash took her to a rented house in Ramaswami Palya (Banaswadi police
Station Limit) in Bangalore. He deliberately isolated Chandini from her only support, the hijra community. She was found dead on the night of December 1, 2002.

Local police in Banaswadi Police Station initially refused to register thecomplaint of Prema (Chandini's Guru). They in fact said that they do not recognise the hijra community or its relationships.
They said they would act only if Chandini's biological parents issued a complaint. They also claimed that they only recovered Rs.5000 in cash while investigating Chandini's death.

There are several issues that suggest suspicion of foul play in Chandini's death. First, it is obvious from the foregoing that the statement of Chandini's husband of being tricked into marriage by her is a lie. There is evidence of his having frequented hamams from earlier days, and the photographic evidence of the marriage clearly shows that he new Chandini was a hijra at the time of marriage.
Second, there are witnesses to the fact that Chandini was brutally treated by her husband, and ran away from him to Pune. Third, when Chandini left her Guru's house (under pressure) she had with her
Rs.50000 and 60 grams of gold, while the police claimed to have recovered only Rs.5000.

We do not have much faith in the local police of Banaswadi Police Station undertaking an impartial investigation. There bias against the hijra community is obvious. There is also the possibility of they being offered cash inducement in order not to undertake the investigation seriously.

The fact finding committee has spoken to Chandini's parents who dispute local police claims of the Rs. 5,000, found with Chandini, having been returned to them. They also mentioned that when they first saw the dead body of Chandini, she had gold ornaments on her which were missing later.

We are starting an email campaign as one of the many ways in which to pressurize the police to investigate this incident seriously, and to ensure that people responsible for Chandini's death do not go unpunished. We request you therefore to send a mail to the Chief Minister of Karnataka at cm@kar.nic.in and to the Chairperson, NHRC at chairnhrc@nic.in, demanding an impartial enquiry into Chandini's death. A model copy of a letter to the Chief Minister is given below. Please also send a copy to sangama@sangamaonline.org

Please act immediately and widely distribute this
mail.

Visit our website www.sangamaonline.org for
information about hijras and other sexuality minorities.

In Solidarity,

Famila, Revathi, Roshan, Lokesh, Sharada, Kumar,
Chandru, Sumathi, Lakshmi, Ajith, Manohar, Nithin
For Sangama
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Copy of letter to Chief Minister of Karnataka /
The Chairperson NHRC