The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) might be handling many rare cases but this one had some shock value.

The hospital's departments of Psychiatry and Forensic Medicine are treating a case of bestiality where a teenager was involved in brutal sexual activity with calves. This is the second case in the last two years.

Bestiality is a sexual offence in which an animal is used as a medium to satisfy sexual desire.

The 18-year-old man accused of bestiality comes from the dairy farm area in Najafgarh on the outskirts of South West Delhi. He was brought to the hospital by his parents seeking treatment for his behaviour.

The doctors said the case was similar to another incident reported last year which involved a man who had sex with two calves with the case also being published in a medical journal.

"He had committed sexual intercourse with two calves and one calf died during the act. Human DNA was detected from the anal and vaginal swabs of calves in a forensic science laboratory which confirmed the allegation. The patient had not shown any feeling of guilt or remorse associated with the death of a calf and admitted to the heterosexual practice," said Dr Sujata Satapathy, who is handling such cases at Department of Psychiatry, AIIMS.

"Bestiality is a punishable offence as per Indian legal system (Section 377 of the IPC). We tried to treat the teenager but he ran away and never came back. His family lived in an unhygienic location where dairy farms operate. Moreover, we are concerned because a person who had engaged in childhood bestiality is more likely to commit adult interpersonal crimes and this should be taken as a warning sign by society," she said.

The case has also been published in the recent issue of Indian Journal of Community Medicine.

Doctors claim that upbringing, personal experiences and family background affect the personality of a person during growth. "As reported by the patient, significant life events during his childhood and adolescence included witnessing domestic violence (father and brother beating their wives), death of his mother when he was 13 years old, and him taking to alcohol at the age of 16 years. He was also sodomised multiple times at the age of 10-11 years," Dr Satapathy said.

Doctors found that the teen often visited Internet cafes to watch pornographic content. "Sexual abuse during childhood and exposure to various online pornography websites involving bestiality could have strongly affected his psycho-socio-sexual and personality development. Repeated sexual abuse in a prepubertal stage could have been the culprit for the patient's internalised aggressive behaviour, which in turn might have resulted in the patient adopting a displacement defence mechanism by displacing his internal anger towards animals. This, in turn, could have resulted in the forceful sexual imposition and committing injuries to the calves to such an extent," Dr Satapathy said.