Warangal, Nov. 14: When Bukhya Veeranna returned home a week ago, his parents were shocked. They could no longer call him their son.

The 20-year-old, who disappeared last year, had come back as a eunuch, wearing a sari, heavy make-up and had flowers in his plaited hair.

Veeranna also had a new name ? Jyothi.

The gypsy from Mahboobabad in Warangal district, about 220 km north of Hyderabad, is among the few who have returned home after being forced into prostitution. In Warangal district alone, nearly 225 tribal boys have been reported missing in the last three years.

Veeranna was forced to undergo a sex-change operation in which his male organ was removed. The gypsy from the forests of Andhra Pradesh says he landed in Mumbai, where he was pressed into the flesh trade. ?I was sexually abused, beaten up, starved and sold thrice,? he recalls.

In Mumbai, Veeranna says, there is a demand for young eunuchs and that at least 15 to 20 tribal boys were still in brothels when he escaped.

?We had to earn a minimum of Rs 1,000 a day or else our food and water were stopped. We were lured into taking liquor and drugs to make us forget the pain and work non-stop,? he says. ?We were all herded into vans like cattle and transported from one place to another every week.?

Veeranna, who worked as a vendor on trains between Warangal and Vijayawada before he disappeared, has told police he would not be able to say where exactly he lived in Mumbai as he was rarely allowed to go out. He lived with 25 other prostitutes, of whom five had undergone a sex-change operation like him.

Local police officials say a team will be sent to Mumbai to locate the other tribal boys.

Veeranna?s mother Latchamma says her son had feminine tendencies from childhood and blames him for the sex change. ?I never thought he would do such a thing. Instead of getting a girl for him, I will now have to look for a boy.? The 45-year-old has not stopped cursing her fate since her son returned.

Following reports of Veeranna?s travails, officials of the tribal development authority had come forward to help him with a plot for a house and Rs 40,000. But the story took a different turn yesterday after the Warangal district eunuchs? association challenged his version and urged the authorities to withdraw the aid.

MARI, a local NGO that works for the welfare of eunuchs, also disputed Veeranna?s story and filed a police complaint against him for cheating.