On July 20, over two since the horrifying Manipur incident took place, four people were arrested – after a viral video of it went viral on social media.
It took more than a month for the FIR in connection with the sexual assault of two women in Manipur's Kangpokpi district on May 4 to be transferred to the relevant police station since the victims had reportedly fled their homes and had complained to the police in another district.
On Thursday, over two since the horrifying incident took place, four people were arrested – after a viral video of it in which the women could be seen being paraded naked went viral on social media.
"Four main accused arrested in the Viral Video Case: 03 (three) more main accused of the heinous crime of abduction and gangrape under Nongpok Sekmai PS, Thoubal District have been arrested today. So a total 04 (four) persons have been arrested till now," the Manipur Police tweeted.
Thoubal superintendent of police Sachidananda told The Indian Express that the police “could not take any action” so far due to “lack of evidence”.
Sachidananda, however, rejected the claims that cops were not present at the site at the time of the gruesome incident as “untrue”, the newspaper reported.
“That very day, the Nongpok Sekmai police station was being mobbed by people trying to loot arms. Police were busy guarding the police station,” the daily quoted the SP as saying.
One of the victims had earlier told IE that the police were there with the mob which was attacking their village. "The police picked us up from near home, took us a little away from the village and left us on the road with the mob. We were given to them by the police,” she was quoted as saying.
Village chief Thangboi Vaiphei, whose complaint later led to the registration of the FIR in the case, told HT that the thousand-strong mob plundered the village, forcing most of the residents, including the women and their two male relatives, to flee.
On May 4, as they came under attack from a mob that vandalised their homes, Vaiphei made frantic calls to the local police station, to no avail.
“When the first incidents of violence took place in Churachandpur on May 3, we informed the local police station and officers came. But on May 4, when we called them, they said they would not be able to come because the police station needed to be saved,” said 65-year-old Vaiphei, who served in the Indian Army’s infantry and retired as a junior commissioned officer (JCO) of the Assam Regiment in 2007, told HT.
As the mob plundered the village, the three women and others fled into the jungles.
“On seeing the church and houses being set on fire, the women fled the village with other residents and took shelter in the jungles on the hills," said Vaiphei.
His complaint — first registered as a “zero FIR” on May 18 but forwarded to the appropriate police station only on June 21 — said the family was finally rescued by a police team from the Nongpok Samai police station 2km away.
But the mob waylaid them and “snatched” them from police custody — though in statements to some media outlets, one of the women later said they were handed over by the police to the mob — killed a man, before assaulting the women and parading them naked. One of the women was later gangraped, the FIR said, adding that the mob also killed her 19-year-old brother for trying to intervene. “The brother of the younger victim was butchered to death. Nobody came to the rescue of the older women,” Vaiphei said.
Manipur governor expresses strong condemnation
Manipur governor Anusuiya Uikey expressed her strong condemnation of the viral video and directed the director general of police (DGP) to take immediate steps to book the perpetrators of this heinous crime and award exemplary punishment as per law.
Amidst a nationwide outcry over the appalling incident in Manipur, chief minister N Biren Singh emphasised that his government would spare no effort in seeking the death penalty for the accused.
The violence in Manipur erupted after a rally by the All Tribal Students Union of Manipur (ATSUM) on May 3 in protest against the proposed inclusion of people belonging to the Meitei community in the list of Scheduled Tribes (STs).
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