Sadhu cuts off genital in protest against love affair charge

KANPUR: A 45-year-old sadhu cut off his genital in Kamasin town of Banda district on Thursday after being charged with having a love affair with a local woman. While the injured sadhu is said to be in a serious condition after undergoing surgery at the district hospital, the police on Friday lodged an FIR under relevant sections of IPC against two men in this connection.

DySP (City) Raghvendra Singh told TOI that the sadhu, identified as Maidani Baba, has been living in an ashram on a land which was lying vacant near Dando road forest cover in Kamasin since the past few years.

"The sadhu, who was on a nine-day Navratri vrat (fast), was disturbed over allegations of love affair with a village woman being levelled against him by some villagers. He has held two people responsible of trying to tarnish his image by linking his name with a village woman. They had also threatened him to vacate the place along with his belongings. We have lodged an FIR against them and investigating the matter," the DySP added.

The incident came to light after the villagers found the sadhu lying in a pool of blood at his ashram on Thursday. They alerted the police, who rushed the sadhu to a nearby PHC from where he was referred to the district hospital.

Doctors stated the condition of the sadhu to be serious. "The sadhu has used a razor and nearly 80-90 per cent of his genital has been cut off from the body. A surgery has been performed on him," said a doctor treating the sadhu.

Villagers told the police that in January the sadhu had tried to cut off his tongue in Kameshwar temple.