Twenty-seven-year-old Debottam Saha remembers how he became a victim of blackmail earlier this year. Saha is a gay man. One night, he went to meet a man who seemed kind to him, at first. But, as he told VOA, that soon changed. The man started making demands. He threatened to cut Saha’s throat unless he gave him money.

İn the end, Saha gave him money and left unharmed. Yet he could take no legal action: An Indian law dating back to colonial times says sex between members of the same sex is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Saha is doing research at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi. He recently joined an effort to overturn the anti-gay law. He is working with a group of current and former students from the country’s top engineering schools, called the IITs.

Aliqismet BADALOV,
“Khalq qazeti”