Another Manipur gang rape: How a 37-year-old was pinned down and sexually assaulted

Far away from the din in Parliament’s Lok Sabha, where MPs are debating a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the ongoing Manipur violence, another horrific case of a gang rape has been registered in the northeastern state.

The incident comes to light after the woman, who has been living in a relief camp – filed a police case. Incidentally, this horrific act has emerged days after the world was awoken to two other women being stripped and paraded naked by a mob and then being gang-raped.

As violence continues to grip the state of Manipur, a series of horrific crimes against women is coming to light. This is what we know of the latest gang rape horror.

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Another horror

A 37-year-old woman approached the police in Manipur’s Bishnupur on Wednesday (9 August) with a complaint that she was sexually assaulted on 3 May in Churachandpur district.

A zero FIR has now been registered and the matter has been transferred to the Churachandpur police station. The police have registered a case of gang rape, assault or criminal force to outrage the modesty of a woman with common intention against “unknown Kuki miscreants.”

The married woman has alleged in the FIR that the barbaric act took place on 3 May, the same day the violence first broke out in the state after a rally by the hill-majority Kukis over the valley-majority Meiteis’ demand for inclusion under the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category.

She alleges in her FIR that she was caught by a group of men, while she was fleeing from her burning house with her two sons, niece and sister-in-law around 6.30 pm on that day. As per her complaint, she said, “I carried my niece on my back and also held my two sons and started running from the spot along with my sister-in-law. She was also carrying a baby on her back and running ahead of me. Then I stumbled and fell down on the road and unable to get up… my sister-in-law came back running towards me and picked up my niece from my back and ran along with my two sons as I insisted.”

Her FIR adds, “When I finally managed to get up, some five-six… miscreants got hold of me… They started verbally abusing and assaulting me. Despite my resistance, I was forcefully pinned down. After this, the men started sexually assaulting me.”

Following the horrific act, she said – as per an NDTV report – that she was ashamed and the trauma was so horrendous that she returned from the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences in the state capital Imphal, without consulting a doctor.

As her health deteriorated, she visited the JNIMS Hospital in Imphal where the medical staff not only treated her but also gave her the courage to speak up. “I started realising the trauma and sufferings that I went through because of their heinous crimes committed against me without any fault of mine… Adequate punishment should be given to the gang of culprits who abused, sexually and physically assaulted me,” the woman was quoted as saying by NDTV.

She added that the stigma that is associated with sexual crimes had kept her silent until Wednesday and the horror had forced her to even consider suicide.

However, she finally couldn’t keep silent and on 9 August (Wednesday) filed the complaint, hoping that justice be meted out.

The police has confirmed complaint and said that the 37-year-old has already undergone a medical examination and that a case under sections 376D (gang rape), 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), and 120B (Punishment of criminal conspiracy) has been filed.

Using sexual assault as a weapon in Manipur

In Manipur since the violence – that has claimed the lives of at least 160 people – broke out, sexual assault and rape have been used extensively as weapons as the Kuki tribes clash with the Meitei community.

The first such horrific instance was when a video went viral on social media on 19 July, which showed two Kuki women being paraded naked through a jeering mob. In a police complaint, one of the women said she was raped and her father and brother killed.

However, that wasn’t the end of the cases of sexual violence. Days after, a 19-year-old tribal woman came forward with her own horror to share. She alleges that as she was planning to escape the violence in Imphal and went to an ATM, she was kidnapped by a group of men. “They forcefully pushed me into the Bolero and drove me to Wangkhei Ayangpeli, a Meitei-dominated locality (about 24 kilometres away),” she was quoted as telling The Hindu.

The men continued to assault her inside the car, she recalls. “They threatened to kill me. They said that all Kukis will be hunted down,” she said. In her retelling of her torture, she added that more people collected and it was the Meira Paibis or “women torch bearers”, who are also known as mothers, who first started hitting her. They then called on other men who blindfolded her, tied her hands, and took her to the Langol Hills in the northern part of Imphal.

Also read: Manipur women horror: How rape and sexual violence are used as a weapon in conflict

She eventually lost consciousness, but when she awoke she found her pants undone and realised what had been done to her.

There’s also the 4 May incident of two Kuki women being assaulted and murdered in the car wash where they were employed. The families of the women allege that they were tortured and raped before being killed. However, investigating officials have not been able to establish rape yet.

Annie Raja, general secretary of the National Federation of Indian Women, who visited relief camps where thousands displaced in the violence are now living, told The Guardian, “From my interactions with the women, I can say with confidence there are many cases of sexual violence.”

The violence against women in the northeastern has also been noted by the Supreme Court and they have appointed former Mumbai Police Commissioner Dattatreya Padsalgikar to monitor the CBI probe on incidents of sexual violence. It has also set up a panel of three former high court judges headed by former J&K HC chief justice Gita Mittal to look into relief and rehabilitation.

But despite all this, Manipur remains on edge. At last count, the state administration said there were 6,523 criminal incidents that had occurred. Sharing the data with the apex court, the authorities said that between May and 30 July, close to 4,500 cases of arson, 4,694 cases of destruction of property, and 4,148 cases of looting have been registered. Another 46 cases were of damage to places of worship and 100 cases of grievous hurt.

With inputs from agencies