JOIN US A 23-year-old woman nearly chopped off a man’s genitals while resisting his attempt to rape her in Thiruvananthapuram late on Friday night.
The man, identified as Sreehari alias Gangeshananda Theerthapada (54), claims to be a spiritual healer and is a former inmate of the Panmana Ashram in Kollam district. Police recorded his arrest late on Friday. He is being treated at the Government Medical College and Hospital in Thiruvananthapuram and his condition is stable after a surgery, sources said.
According to the woman’s statement recorded by the police, the “godman” had been raping her since she was a minor, and has continued the abuse for about eight years. The incident happened at the woman’s home in Kannammoola here.
Sreehari made sexual advances at the woman who, in retaliation, assaulted him with a knife. City Police Commissioner G Sparjan Kumar said the woman fled her home after the incident and approached the police.
Her statement was also recorded at a local court in the evening. Sreehari, however, told doctors that he himself had tried to sever his penis. Sreehari is learnt to have been known to the woman’s family for many years.
He became acquainted with the family during the late 2000s in connection with a land dispute in Kannammoola and has since been influential on the family. The woman’s father is ailing and Sreehari is reported to have offered help to the family in getting over their troubles.
“The girl was scared to expose him since he was a godman and she didn’t discuss the repeated incidents of rape even with her family,” a police official investigating the case told DH.
Pettah Police have registered a case under Section 376 (rape) of the IPC and provisions of the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, responding to queries on the incident, called it a “brave act” by the woman.
A spokesperson of the hospital said Sreehari was brought in at about 12.40 am on Saturday, with 90% of his penis severed. A representative of the Panmana Ashram said the ashram did not have ties with Sreehari since he left its premises about 15 years ago. “He had joined us as a vedic student. After leaving the ashram, he has come here once or twice,” she told DH.
Who is the godman?
Sreehari, a native of Ernakulam, earlier ran a hotel in Kolenchery in the district. He is learnt to have shifted to the ‘spiritual’ path after financial losses forced him to close the business down. The godman’s reported links with some of the Sangh Parivar outfits led the state BJP to distance itself from him.