Hours after Manipur incident, cops visited the village, termed situation as ‘calm’

Manipur Police left a village two hours after a mob raped a woman and murdered her father and brother, as they “did not see any loss of human life”.

Barely two hours after three Kuki women were stripped, paraded naked, assaulted, one of them gang-raped, and her father and brother murdered by a mob in B Phainom village in Thoubal district of Manipur on May 4, a police team visited the village but left because “they did not see any loss of human life”, police records accessed by HT show.

Women during a protest in Churachandpur on Saturday. (PTI)

The police described the situation in the village as “calm” as it found no accused at the spot, showed a reading of FIR (6)(5) 2023 said, filed by the Nonpok Sekmai police station the jurisdiction in which B Phainom village was located.

HT analysed the contents of two FIRs that the Nonpok Sekmai police station filed on its own — or suo motu — on May 4, and the contents, taken together, paint a picture that leaves many questions, and strengthens reports from people in the Kuki community, who have said they were apprehensive of approaching police for fair action since most happened to be of the Meitei community. It is these two communities that have clashed since May 3, leading to at least 150 deaths in an episode that many fear to have played out much worse than what is known.

One of those horrific details that has since emerged was captured in a video posted online on Wednesday and showed two women being paraded naked and groped, within minutes of their male family members being lynched, and moments before the younger of the two was gang raped.The four were part of a five-member group — the fifth person was a woman who was also stripped and paraded — that was snatched from a police team after they hid out when the B Phainom village was attacked.

The FIRs HT analysed — numbered (5)(5) 2023 and (6)(5) 2023 — showed that the village was attacked twice and the police responded both times, first in the early hours of May 4 (shortly after midnight) and then again at 5pm, roughly two hours after the attack in which the five victims were caught by the mob then went on to murder the male members and sexually assault and parade naked the women.

In both FIRs, the police said it found no evidence of a crime other than vandalisation of homes.

Then there were other inconsistencies based on the accounts of the horrific crime that have only now come to light, based on a complaint by the village head of B Phainom.

This FIR was filed only on May 18 and was numbered (110)(6)(2023). In it, the village head identified the attackers as those from Meitei groups --- while the FIRs filed by the police suo motu made no mention of this.

“...Today on May 4, received reliable information that some unknown persons numbering about 2,000/2,500 were unlawfully assembled and stormed at the five neighbouring villages i.e. B Phainom, S Elmphai, Haokhong. Phouoibi and Ukhongshang Village… the organised unruly and irate mob by holding deadly weapon and vandalized some houses,” the police noted in FIR (6)(5) 2023 -- the one relating to the afternoon attack.

The suo motu FIRs also do not contain a mention about the victims being taken from a police vehicle, as alleged by the village head. It is also not clear why the police characterised the situation as calm in the second FIR, despite noting that settlements in the village had been burned to the ground.

The FIR also claimed the police team did not spot any loss of human life.“On arrival at the spot, the unruly and irate mob have already dismantled and vandalized the houses of the said villages in mass. The houses and valuable household items were destroyed by the unruly and irate mob whereas no any loss of human life was found so far. Later on, the situation was calm,” the second FIR, signed by station in-charge K Premkumar Singh, said.

The first arrests in the case were not made until a video of the women emerged online, 77 days after the crime.

Taken together, these police records strengthen questions over the Manipur administration, especially its chief minister N Biren Singh, who has remained in office despite widespread calls for him to quit.

Till Saturday, six people have been arrested in connection with the attack on the five people -- with the latest arrest being that of a juvenile that was announced on Saturday.

In FIR (110)(6)(2023), the village head, who also fled his home after the attack, accused members of Meitei Youth Organisations, Meetei Leepun, Kangleipak Kanba Lup (KKL), Arambai Tenggol and World Meitei Council (WMC), Schedule Tribe Demand Committee (STDC) of attacking the village in the afternoon.

The five people had also fled when their village was raided by the mob. “They were later on rescued by Nongpok Sekmai Police team and (were) on their way to Nongpok Sekmai PS. However, they were blocked on the way by a mob and snatched from the custody of police team by the violent mob near Toubul (Sekmai khunou) about 2km from Nongpok Sekmai police station,” the village chief said in the FIR.

The village chief did not mention the identity of the police personnel from whose custody the family was forcibly taken.

The mob first killed the 56-year-old man near a paddy field after which the three women — aged 21, 42 and 52 — were “physically forced to remove their clothes and were stripped naked in front of the mob. The 21-year-old woman was gangraped in front of the other three. When the woman’s younger brother, a 19-year-old man, tried to defend his sister, he was murdered by members of the mob on the spot”, the FIR stated.

The three women managed to escape with the help of some people they knew, it said.

Since May 3, the northeastern state has been gripped by ethnic clashes — primarily between the tribal Kukis, which mostly reside in the hill districts, and majority 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 scheduled tribe (ST) status to the Meitei community.