Case #1: R, a 19-year-old gay youth who came to Delhi from his village to pursue higher studies, meets P, a 29-year-old gay man, through a dating app. P lives in Noida and works in an MNC. He has his own apartment, and is affluent in society. R starts living with P as he is short on money and needs a shelter. Later, he finds himself stuck in a toxic and abusive situation. When he tries to leave, P refuses to let him go, allegedly takes his laptop and essential documents while sexually and physically abusing him. R is trapped, subjected to forced sex, and turned into a slave to P. With his finances all dried up, and no family support, R sinks into depression with seemingly no way out of the situation. His bank account, phone and every way to escape is under P’s control.
Instead of going to the police, R reaches out to a social media account that helps people like him. Nakshatra Bagwe, who also belongs to the queer community is a known face on social media, uses his handle to spread awareness on issues relatef to the community. After R contacts him, Bagwe does a detailed research by scanning P’s social media, including his LinkedIn profile. P lets R go soon, evidently after he gets to know that Bagwe has taken up the case.
After rescuing him, Bagwe, who works with a team of lawyers, and an NGO arrange therapy for R and also get in touch with his parents to counsel them.
Case #2: H meets a man he matched with on Grindr (a gay dating app). The date invites him for a walk, on the beachside in Mumbai. The two meet up and start walking together. Suddenly, someone dressed as a policeman stops both of them, and H’s date is found to be carrying something like a white powder in a transparent pouch (a fake drug). The person pretending to be from the police blackmails H into paying him up in lieu of time in jail. The date disappears soon after this. The incident leaves H, who was only looking for a partner, traumatised, broke, and to suffer in silence.
Apart from the fact that the victims were gay men in both the instances mentioned above, there is another common factor between the two. In both cases, the men were “too scared” to go to the police.
A recent study involving 300 gay and bisexual men from six metro cities shows that young men from low income families, engaged in pink collar jobs like beautician, sales, hospitality, care giving, etc, and those belonging to OBC communities, faced highest incidents of sexual violence.
The study titled ‘Men at risk: correlates of verbal, physical and sexual violence against men who have sex with men across selected cities in India’ revealed pervasive violence against men who have sex with men (MSM), with six in 10 men sampled, on average, having faced some form of violence for their sexual orientation.
The study published in BMC Public Health further revealed that men aged between 18 and 24 are at the greatest risk, 81 per cent among them having faced some violence. It surveyed 50 MSM people each from Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi, Lucknow and Mumbai to look for patterns of violence, protective factors, as well as differences across the cities.
Their sample of 300 people has revealed that MSM people aged 18 to 24, those who are open about their sexual orientation, those with low family incomes, and those who do not have the support of their families are at the highest risk of violence.
Vacuum Created In Absence Of Laws On Rape Against Men
With the criminal laws in Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and in Bharatiya Nagrik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) silent on rape against men, those from the queer community, especially gay men, are increasingly facing threats and abuse, including from affluent gay men. The police may register a case of assault, wrongful confinement, but not of rape and sexual assault against men by men.
On October 14, the Supreme Court while hearing a PIL against missing provisions in the BNS to penalise sexual crimes against men, transpersons, etc (that were earlier covered by Section 377 of the IPC) said it cannot create an offence.
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The bench headed by former Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud said if Parliament has not introduced the provision, the Supreme Court cannot compel it to do it. The bench, while rejecting the PIL, said the top court cannot create an offence, but can allow the petitioner to make a representation to the Centre.
“This court cannot under Article 142 direct that a particular act is an offence. It falls under the domain of parliament. If the petitioner feels there is lacunae in law, representation may be given to the Union of India,” the former CJI said.
However, on August 27, the Delhi High Court had directed the Central government to expeditiously decide on the plea against exclusion of “unnatural offences” from the BNS. The plea highlighted that the omission of IPC’s Section 377 in the BNS has taken away the protection available against same-sex non-consensual sexual acts and a provision to that effect was necessary to ensure the safety and dignity of individuals, particularly those from the LGBTQIA+ community.
Nearly four months have since passed, but there is still no progress on this. In the meantime, the Supreme Court has refused to interfere with what it called “parliamentary domain”.
The petition had contended that if a man is raped by another man, there is no provision under the BNS to deal with that.
After the Supreme Court judgment, which had decriminalised homosexuality, the Section 377 of IPC was only read to deal with non-consensual cases, particularly to protect and ensure safety of individuals from the queer community. The new criminal law, BNS, that replaced the IPC has no such provision.
The high court had in August told the Centre that there cannot be a vacuum to an offence and by omitting Section 377, they have decriminalised even non-consensual sex (of the nature mentioned in IPC Section 377).
The HC said the government could also consider bringing in an ordinance to criminalise non-consensual same-sex sexual offences that was dealt by Section 377 of the IPC.
A Supreme Court advocate, who has dealt with such cases, told ABP Live on condition of anonimity that not only the police but even the judges at the district court level are clueless on how to deal with such cases in the absence of a charge of rape against men by men, and are awaiting HC or Supreme Court judgments to decide on them. “After the BNS was implemented on July 1, forget about police, even the judges at the district court level are not getting actively involved, and are waiting for judgments and clarifications from the High Court. Not only Section on rape, but police doesn’t know what to do in applicability of many sections under the newly implemeted BNS. They have to look up to their own lawyers for the smallest of queries and lacunas created by BNS like this one.”
How Queer Community Is Dealing With Such Threats
Nakshatra Bagwe, the activist mentioned above who is also a filmmaker, gets several calls and messages every day from young couples as well as individuals belonging to queer community, besides heterosexuals too, who are seeking help against their intimate videos and pictures being leaked online, showing them in compromising positions.
Bagwe became famous on Instagram after he helped anonymous people by reporting and removing their intimate videos and pictures from porn sites and other online platforms. He helps people by getting intimate content removed from the porn sites; gathering information about the blackmailers and threatening them to expose them online; and on some occasions getting police involved to help the anonymous victims.
Bagwe has a legal team to deal with such cases, and claims to have helped many individuals and couples, including teenagers, who are too afraid to file a police complaint. According to him, sometimes it is revenge porn, sometimes it is to mint money by blackmailing the victim, and other times it is just a sick mentality where gay men find themselves left alone without any law to deal with violence against them.
Speaking about sexual crime against gay men, Bagwe said gay men have become a “money making machine” for heterosexual men.
“Gay people are easy money making machines for heterosexual men. For instance: I received a help request from a victim who was hesitant to approach the police. But the person shared images of people from a dating App, who were targeting Gay men. They were a group of four people in the age group of 20-25 years. They swipe right on gay men through dating apps and invite them to their homes. When the gay person reaches their home they initiate sexual contact. As soon as the gay person undresses, suddenly two people will barge in the apartment and start recording them. Even when there has been no sexual acts, they will start blackmailing the gay person for money,” Bagwe shared while speaking to ABP Live about a racket he recently exposed involving straight men who pretended to be gay to extort money from gay men.
Bagwe, who himself is openly gay, said most people from queer community are still behind the closet due to family pressure, societal stigma and other personal compulsions. He said he has also dealt with cases that involve married men being blackmailed because they are secretly gay, adding that they prefer to take his help or go to some NGOs because they “don’t want to involve the police”.
“There are many cases where unfortunately married men, who were using these dating apps in secret to meet gay men, were preyed upon by straight men pretending to be gay. They end up paying huge sums of money to their blackmailers,” Bagwe said.
In the absence of proper laws and police protection, the queer community is looking out for each other. There are many other individuals also like Bagwe within the community who help men in trouble.
“We continuosly strive to counsel the members of LGBTQ+ community on how to navigate the dating apps. For instance, not sharing at the outset that you are not openly gay or you are alone or any such information that makes you look vulnerable,” Bagwe explained.
‘Rape Against Men Is Not A Crime But A Joke In This Country’
Asked if he has come across any case where queer men faced sexual abuse or rape, Bagwe told ABP Live that such cases are more common than one might think.
“I get a huge number of help calls and messages, especially from gay men. Gay men are especially afraid of going to the police, so they come to me or other NGOs and other activists seeking help,” he said.
Talking about his experience in dealing with such cases, he shared what transpires when he gets involved with police and law to deal with such gangs.
“Most of the time the victims don’t want to go to the police. And even if in some case, they reach out to police, the first response they hear from them is: ‘Acha Aadmi Ke Saath Bhi Hota Hai?’ (oh so men too get raped!) The experience of reporting a crime to police is not very victim friendly. Even if there is a law tomorrow in BNS, our society needs awareness. I have received immense help from police in dealing with certain cases, but then again I have a legal team to advise me. I know of instances where people have gone to report to the police and have faced the stigma. A man geeting raped is a joke for people in India,” Bagwe said.
Sharing a specific example, Bagwe said he once got to know about a gang of 20-25-year-old men looting gay men through dating apps, and when he looked up their details online they all appeared to be from decent families. Sometimes, a mere warning that your parents, family or employers will be informed about this is enough to recover the extorted money, but in some cases police have to be involved when the sum in question involves huge money or the assault is lethal, he said.
Bagwe shared that the Ballabgarh police reached out to him once after seeing his post about a gang that would assault and rob gay men after luring them through dating apps. “Though the police reached out to us as they wanted to clear the area, and even promised to protect the victims’ identity, the victim was so scared that he ran away.”
Another such instance was from Mumbai’s Vikhroli, where a gang of 20 “straight people” looted at least six gay men. Bagwe said he received great help from the local police and politicians in exposing the gang.
“Generally, straight people don’t get physical, but they act like that and get shirtless, or will get forcefull oral sex. Sometimes, the victims don’t want to go to the police. Legally, when it comes to us, unfortunately a ‘No’ does not always mean ‘No’ like it is for women in Indian law,” Bagwe added.