After a shocking incident a week back, in which 24 members of the transgender community attempted mass suicide by consuming floor-cleaning liquid in Indore’s Nandlalpura area, on Wednesday Kinnar Akhara chief Laxmi Narayan Tripathi has come out in public talking of the danger to the lives of the members of a local settlement and she has sought protection for them from police.

Tripathi, who is the Acharya Mahamandaleshwar (head) of the Kinnar Akhara, and also the chief of the Nandlalpura Dera, spoke on the dispute between this dera and Sapna Haji’s faction, which has been ongoing for a while now; it is related to money and dominance. “We will soon complain to the police about this threat. The police should provide security to the members of the Nandlalpura Dera,” said Tripathi.

Why 24 transgender persons attempted mass suicide?

Last week, at least 24 members of the transgender community attempted mass suicide and were hospitalised. DCP Anand Kaladgi confirmed that upon getting the information, all of them were hospitalised and are currently stable. DCP Kaladgi said, “We received information about a situation of ruckus at a house in Nandlalpura where transgender persons reside. Our senior officers promptly arrived at the scene. They learned that some of the individuals had consumed an unknown substance, causing several of them to fall ill. Ambulances were immediately called, and 24 people were admitted to the nearby hospital. They are currently receiving treatment and are in stable condition.”

It is suspected that the suicide attempt was triggered due to the ongoing rivalry between two transgender community groups. “The allegation is that a leader of one of the groups was harassing members from the other group. We have registered an FIR after their statements were recorded,” DCP Kaladgi noted.

Sexual assault and blackmail

As per local residents, this incident of mass suicide followed after two cases of sexual assault and blackmail. Locals alleged that two men who pretended to be journalists sexually assaulted a trans person; however, police said the cases to be two different incidents. Neha Kunwar, a person closely associated with the transgender community said a few months back, two men who called themselves journalists assaulted a trans person. The two accused have been identified as Akshay and Pankaj.

Tripathi confirmed that Sapna Haji is under arrest after the mass suicide attempt, but her three associates are at large. She urged police to arrest other accused at the earliest. Pandharinath police station in-charge Ajay Rajouria confirmed that Sapna Haji has been behind bars since October 16 and the other three are being looked for. “A reward of Rs 10,000 each has been announced for information leading to the arrest of Hashmi, Jain, and Kumaun. Our teams are searching for the three accused,” he said.

10 transgender persons attempt suicide in Mumbai’s Vikhroli

On Sunday, 10 transgender persons were admitted to a municipal hospital in Vikhroli after attempting mass suicide, confirmed police. The incident happened after a person named Krishna Adelkar bad-mouthed the trans community. A doctor of Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar said that the transgender persons are undergoing treatment and will be kept under observation for some days.

The accused in the case, Adelkar, was a former employee of an organisation where he sexually assaulted a transgender person and was arrested, but when he was on bail, he bad-mouthed the community, leading to mental stress and the suicide attempt.

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