Manipur police. (Representative image)
Nearly a year has passed since the appalling incident of stripping and parading of two women in Manipur”s Churachandpur shook the nation. Recent revelations from a chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), as reported by The Indian Express, shed further light on the distressing events.
A video, which went viral in July 2023 and triggered nationwide outrage, showed the two women — one in her 20s and the other in her 40s — being made to walk naked towards a field by a mob of men. Some men could be seen dragging the two women and sexually assaulting them.
The chargesheet said that before the mob paraded the two women from the Kuki-Zomi community naked and sexually assaulted them, they had sought refuge inside a police Gypsy parked by the roadside. However, their pleas were met with indifference as the police driver claimed there was “no key” to start the vehicle. Two other male victims were also present inside the Gypsy. Subsequently, all the policemen left the area, leaving the victims defenseless as a large mob forcibly removed them from the vehicle, according to the chargesheet.
“…The driver of Gypsy suddenly drove and stopped the vehicle near the violent mob of around 1,000 people, and the male victim again requested the police to start the vehicle, but he was asked to keep silent,” it added.
The CBI”s investigation unveiled the horrifying incident that unfolded in Churachandpur, Manipur, in May last year. The chargesheet was filed against six individuals and a juvenile before a special court in Guwahati in October. Two family members of the women were also murdered by the mob, which numbered around 800-1000, according to the FIR.
The police FIR indicated that one of the women was gangraped. She later recounted to The Wire that despite the presence of Manipur Police at the crime scene, they did not intervene to assist them. The distressing video footage, which compelled the Biren Singh government to acknowledge the severity of the violence in the state and led to the arrest of an accused months after the incident, depicts two women stripped naked and being paraded by a mob. One of the survivors featured in the video informed the news portal, “Manipur’s Police were present there, but they didn’t help us.”
Another survivor stated that she saw four policemen inside a car, merely observing the violence unfold. “They didn’t do anything to help us,” she lamented. Her father and brother were killed by the mob.
Since May 3 last year, over 200 people have lost their lives, and thousands have been displaced due to ethnic tensions between the Imphal Valley-based Meiteis and the adjoining hills-based Kukis.
