Manipur shocker: Houses set afire, brother murdered while trying to rescue woman, says FIR

Manipur video: Police said they arrested one of the accused earlier in the day and three more later.

Details of a first information report (FIR) filed on May 18 by Manipur police in the case involving women being stripped and paraded — videos of which went viral on Wednesday — detail the callous nature of the crime, while the inertia of the local police in acting, and the fact that they swooped in and arrested four of the perpetrators on Thursday after the videos went viral, highlight the complete collapse of the state’s law and order and administrative infrastructure.

Students during a candlelight vigil, against the Manipur violence, at Chanakya National Law University in Patna on Thursday. (Santosh Kumar/HT)

Manipur Police said they arrested one of the accused earlier in the day and three more later.

Security officials aware of the case said a mob first attempted to burn the houses in B Phainom village on the evening of May 3 (the first day that violence broke out across the state) but that attempt was foiled by villagers.

A larger mob returned the following day and burnt the village, housing Kukis, to the ground, according to the FIR.

The statement of the village chief, mentioned in the FIR, says that at around 3pm on May 4, a mob suspected to comprise members of Meitei Youth Organisations, Meetei Leepun, Kangleipak Kanba Lup (KKL), Arambai Tenggol and World Meitei Council (WMC) and Schedule Tribe Demand Committee (STDC) entered the village, carrying weapons such as AK , SLR, INSAS and .303 Rifles.

The security officials added that there are three more villages – Phoweibi, New Irong, and Haokhongching – near B Phainom.

“There are around 25 houses in B Phainom village. The population of the village must be around 150. The police and security agencies had rescued around 90 villagers that morning. Almost all houses were burnt in the village. Most villagers are now living with their relatives or the camps run by the government,” said one of the officials, seeking anonymity.

On May 4, following the attack, three women and two men from the village, all part of the same family, fled into the jungle. They ran into a police team and throught they were safe.

“They were rescued by a Nongpok Sekmai Police team and were on their way to Nongpok Sekmai police station, but they were blocked on the way by a mob and snatched from the custody of the police team near Toubul (Sekmai khunou), about 2 km from Nongpok Sekmai police station,” said the village chief in the FIR.

However, in statements to some media outlets, one of the two women said they were handed over by the police to the mob.

The mob, according to the FIR, first killed one of the five, a 56-year-old man on the spot near a paddy field after which the three women – aged 21, 42 and 52 -- were stripped. The 21-year-old woman was gang-raped in front of the other three. When the woman’s younger brother, a 19-year-old man, tried to “defend his sister’s modesty and life, he was murdered by members of the mob on the spot.”

Eventually, the three women managed to escape.

While the FIR does not mention how the three women managed to flee the village,security officials said they walked 6-7km and reached another village whose residents helped them reach a hospital in Tengnoupal.

Since May 3, the northeastern state has been gripped by ethnic clashes – primarily between the tribal Kukis, who mostly reside in the hill districts, and Meiteis, the dominant community in Imphal Valley – in which at least 150 people have died and over 50,000 have been displaced.

Clashes first broke out on May 3 in Churachandpur town after Kuki groups called for protests against a proposed tweak to the state’s reservation matrix, granting ST status to the Meitei community. Internet is still not back in the state.