In connection with the case of two women who were reportedly gang-raped after being paraded in public while completely naked in the Indian state of Manipur, four men have been detained. The crime sparked anger after it was documented in a viral video.
The arrests happened on Thursday, one day after the video of the assault sparked outrage across India and was denounced by the Supreme Court and the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. More arrests were imminently anticipated, according to the police. After it was revealed that the attack on the women, who are members of the Kuki tribe, a minority, had occurred in early May, the police came under fire.
Although a police report was made at the time, nothing was done for more than 70 days until the video became viral and pressure was applied on the authorities to take action. One of the women in the video said that the Meitei-majority crowd that carried out the violence had been given to the women by the police. Following the arrests, several women from the Meitei tribe in the neighborhood set fire to one of the suspects’ homes. Additionally, a large number of women gathered in the state capital of Manipur on Friday to voice their opposition to the violence seen in the film.
After receiving harsh criticism for being silent for months, the widely shared video forced Modi to make his first public remarks on the turmoil, during which he claimed that the “entire country has been shamed” by the tragedy.
Additionally, since the ethnic strife in Manipur began in early May, the video has drawn attention to the brutality experienced by women and other members of the minority Kuki group. As a result of the violence, the state has essentially been divided along ethnic lines, with the Meitei tribe ruling the lowlands and the Kuki tribe controlling territory in the hills, resulting in the deaths of over 140 individuals, the majority of whom were members of the Kuki tribe, and the displacement of 60,000 people. The Kuki tribe is now engaged in a state-independence war.
According to a complaint they gave the police, the women in the video, who were between the ages of 21 and 42, were part of a group that fled when a Meitei mob of 800 to 1,000 people burned their town on fire. As they escaped, they came across another aggressive Meitei mob that had surrounded the women, made them strip, and then paraded them down the street while they were being molested by several men in the throng. After that, the two ladies said they were gang-raped in a field after being tossed there. The mob is accused of killing two Kuki guys who were in their group.
Activists in Manipur assert that this incident was not an isolated occurrence, as there were other instances where Kuki women fell victim to sexual assault and rape by Meitei mobs during the onset of the ethnic conflict. The conflict arose due to the spread of false information about Kukis raping and killing Meitei women. Some of the worst atrocities in Manipur, like beheadings and targeted assault, rape, and torture of women, have been alleged to have gone unchecked by the authorities. The crisis had largely gone unresolved by the government, and Amit Shah, the home minister, appeared to have little effect on tensions during his visit to the state last month. However, following the publication of the video, the Supreme Court warned that “we will take action if you don’t” and asked the government in Manipur to get the situation under control.
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