Four arrested amid outcry over barbaric act in Manipur

These were the first arrests in the case after 77 days of the incident, and a month after the FIR was sent to the appropriate police station.

New Delhi Police in Manipur on Thursday arrested four people who were allegedly part of a mob that paraded and assaulted three women after stripping them on May 4, in an incident whose video clips, which surfaced on Wednesday, have led to ripples across the country amid the ongoing ethnic violence in the northeastern state.

Ethnic violence has claimed over 150 lives in Manipur. (PTI)

These were the first arrests in the case after 77 days of the incident, and a month after the FIR was sent to the appropriate police station. Heirum Hera Das (32), a resident of Thoubal town, was the first to be arrested. In a tweet later in the day, police said: “Three more accused of abduction and gang rape under Nongpok Sekmai police station. So total four persons have been arrested. The state police is making all out efforts to arrest the other culprits at the earliest. Raids are conducting.” Police are yet to reveal the identity of the remaining three arrested people.

Police officers said the investigating team has identified at least eight more men who were involved in the incident. “The men involved in the incident are from villages that are far away. But our teams have identified at least nine of them. Different teams are camping at hideouts in those places where these men are hiding. The mob had started building up at this village from the night of May 3,” a police officer said, seeking anonymity. “More people will be arrested... Sections of rape and murder have already been added to the FIR.”

In a tweet, chief minister N Biren Singh said his heart goes out to the women. He added that the women were subjected to “a deeply disrespectful and inhumane act, as shown in the distressing video” that surfaced on Wednesday. Officials said Union home minister Amit Shah spoke to Singh about the probe, and directed him to take strict action.

The video of the stripped women being paraded in B Phainom village in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district surfaced on social media, fanning fresh tension in the state, and leading to an outcry across the country. The incident rocked Parliament on Thursday, with the Opposition saying it represented the Centre’s failure in controlling the situation, and PM Narendra Modi saying the culprits will not be spared.

According to the FIR — filed on May 18 — one of the three women of a family was gang raped while a mob of 800-1,000 killed her brother and father on May 4.

The family of five had fled to a forest to escape an armed mob that had entered their village and vandalised houses. Police later rescued the family.

According to the FIR, the family of five fled to a forest to escape an armed mob that entered their village and vandalised houses. But when the family was on their way to a police station, the mob waylaid them and snatched them from police custody – though in statements to some media outlets, one of the two women said they were handed over by the police to the mob – and first killed a man, before assaulting the women and parading them naked.

HT has seen a copy of the FIR. One of the women was later gang raped, the FIR said, adding that the mob also killed her 19-year-old brother for trying to intervene.

The three women managed to escape from the spot with the help of some locals,” said the FIR. An activist, who has been working on the case, said the surviving members of the family, along with other villagers, have now moved to a camp in Churachandpur. According to the FIR, the case was not reported on time due to the “communal tension” in the state.