In a shocking revelation, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh on Thursday, July 20, said that “hundreds of similar cases” were reported in the state when a TV anchor asked him about the video of sexual violence against two Kuki women that had surfaced a day earlier. Responding to an India Today anchor who questioned him about the state apparatus, Singh added that there is “violence going on daily”.
“Who suppressed it for two months? The video was leaked only yesterday and we got to know then. There are 100 such similar FIRs here. We don’t want to listen to allegations. Hundreds of similar cases have taken place, that is why we have banned the internet. I condemn it. It is a heinous crime and a crime against humanity,” Singh said while talking to India Today.
On Wednesday, the country was shocked as visuals of the two victims being paraded naked by a mob surfaced on social media. The incident occurred on May 4, when around 800-1000 people carrying sophisticated weapons like AK, SLR, INSAS, and .303 rifles entered the B Phainom village in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district, a day after ethnic clashes broke out between the Meitei and Kuki communities.
The north-eastern state has been witnessing violence since May 3 after the controversial attempt to include the Hindu Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribes category. In a separate video released after the incident, the Manipur Chief Minister said that he has asked the police to consider capital punishment for the criminals. “Yesterday I was told there is a video and I saw it immediately. I felt so bad after seeing that. It is a crime against humanity. This is not what humans do. I condemned it and told the police to authenticate and catch whoever is responsible. I told them to punish them with death,” he stated.
In the May 4 incident, the violent mob looted and burned the village and then captured five residents of the village – two men and three women. The victims were fleeing as the Meitei mobs went on a rampage. The victims were a man aged 56, his 19-year-old son, 21-year-old daughter; and two other women aged 42 and 52.
According to the First Information Report (FIR), the mob immediately killed the 56-year-old first, and then forced the three women to remove their clothes. The 21-year-old victim was then gangraped. Her 19-year-old brother who resisted the sexual violence was also killed on the spot, the FIR said. One of the survivors who spoke to Scroll said that they tried to flee the village after finding out that Meitei mobs were attacking the neighbouring village.
According to the police complaint, the victims were rescued by the police as they tried to escape to the forest for hiding. However, when a violent mob waylaid them, the women said the police themselves handed them over to the mob. Charges filed in the FIR on May 18 include abduction, gangrape, and murder against “unknown armed miscreants”.
The dastardly crime was an act of “retribution” after the image of a woman wrapped in a plastic bag went viral. The messaging claimed that it was a Meitei woman who was raped and killed by Kuki men in Churachandpur on May 3 after ethnic violence broke out. Though the news turned out to be false, it resulted in spiralling violence.
What has sparked concern and outrage is that the police reacted to the incident only after the video surfaced two months later. Journalists and activists sought the intervention of the Supreme Court to tackle the law and order situation in Manipur. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud on Thursday issued a statement stating that the visuals were deeply disturbing and said that “using women as an instrument” in an area of communal strife to perpetuate gender violence was unacceptable.