Deeply saddened over the recent massacre where a mentally unstable gunman Omar Mateen gunned down 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, former ICC President N Srinivasan’s son Ashwin and his gay partner Avi Mukherjee have restarted efforts for freedom after facing house arrest and torture by the former BCCI president.
“Just like the Orlando killer Omar Mateen, my father N Srinivasan too is wracked with guilt over his own gay past. He is transfer-projecting that on us and hence his homophobia takes on a rarely seen venality,” Ashwin was quoted as saying, according to a report in ‘dna’.
Earlier, Ashwin had alleged that his father used violence against him and his partner Avi to ‘cure’ them of homosexuality. He accused his father of pressing him to marry and “have progeny to carry on the lineage”.
“I want my father to give me my share of family property and let me live my life the way I want with my partner Avi… “We’re being held captive against our will and tortured by my father who wants me to break up with Avi, get married and have children to further the family line,”Ashwin said last year.
Ashwin said that his mother Chitra and father, along with the doctor made all possible efforts to ensure heroin was administered to the gay couple.
“Later, they reduced the drug intake and made it irregular. Avi and I started experiencing heightened stress and hypersensitivity, sleeplessness, anxiety, couldn’t even hold on to a thought for longer than a minute. Dr. Khanna, who we were seeing, wouldn’t let us onto why this was happening and we finally looked it up on the net to find that we were suffering from Post Acute Withdrawal Syndrome,” Ashwin added.
Ashwin’s mother then asked the couple to undergo detox. “Because she promised we’ll be allowed to move to the country of our choice without any interference from the family in two months when we were completely out of rehab, we agreed to go and were flown down to Chennai in August 2014.”
The couple were first shifted to a serviced apartment, Absolute Home in Kotturpuram. “My mother said they were on the lookout for another place for us near our family home. She told us that taking us back to our family home will lead to embarrassment in front of the servants.”
Then again in September, they were shifted to an apartment owned by Arun Murugappa.
“Two months have now become two years, we’ve been given death threats and fear for our lives. Our passports and other documents of identity have all been taken away and we’ve been told not to step out,” he said.
Avi too addressed the problem they were facing. He said that due to Srinivasan’s status in the society, they have found it tough to get any help.
“Ashwin’s parents are well-connected dollar billionaires. We have found efforts by us to reach out to authorities in Chennai and Delhi have all been frustrated by them. Forget legal help, even doctors have refused to treat us.”
Neither Srinivasan nor his wife, who are currently in New York, according to the report, were available for comment.
Ashwin and Avi have now sought help from the world’s largest coalition of NGOs fighting against many social issues. “We’re hoping that they will be able to intervene and help us out of our predicament.”