BAREILLY: It was no ordinary domestic squabble . The ‘wife’ said her ‘ husband ’ had assaulted her and cheated her of cash and ornaments worth Rs 3 lakh. But then, she really was a man, Nandram alias Raju. A resident of Bhamaura tehsil , she said she had long had feminine traits. Her lover forced her to undergo a sex-change operation at Moradabad three years ago, she said, and her lover and she had taken to living as man and wife.

Recently, she got to know that the man she loved and married had been married earlier, and even had a child by that marriage. The couple had a bitter falling out, she said.

The man who has been accused of assault and cheating is now in police custody. He has been saying that he had to run away, as his eunuch companion had begun to attempt vigorously to make a eunuch of him too.

In her complaint to police, eunuch Soni, resident of Shahi village, said, “I was male at birth and my original name was Nandram alias Raju. Since childhood, I have feminine traits. I used to work as a dancer and with musical troupes. That is where I met Raju, a resident of Katka Bhagat village under Bhamaura police station, and fell in love.”

The two Rajus took to making a life together. The one with the feminine traits went under the knife to change sex, so the two could live as man and wife.

Complainant Soni said discord started in the relationship once she came to know that her man had been married before. She then started working with a group of eunuchs. Recently, the couple had an ugly spat. Raju thrashed Soni and left the house with cash and valuables.

Police, acting on the complaint, arrested Raju and interrogated him.

Station officer Rakesh Yadav of the Bhamaura police station told TOI, “Our investigations showed that Soni had never really undergone an operation or anything. She was a eunuch since birth. Her relationship with Raju was a business one, he worked as her driver. When he left his job, the eunuch came up with a tale of assault.”

The man whom police have arrested has said that he had been assaulted several times by Soni, who had inflicted injuries with a blade on him in an attempt to make a eunuch of him.

