A special court under the SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act in Thoubal gave details of the May 4 incident in its court order dated 31st July. The order disclosed grave details about the incident of three women being paraded naked in Manipur while violence erupted. From a man getting a call from his spouse when he was allegedly sexually assaulting the women to friends having drinks before they joined the mob, the details mentioned in the order are sickening.Â
The court was hearing a plea by the police that sought judicial custody of the accused. The accused are identified as Huirem Herodash Meitei (32), Arun Khundongbam (29), Yumlembam Jiban Singh (18), and Ningombam Tomba Singh.
The court order details how exactly were the different accused involved in the incident and the roles played by them. The order says that on 4th May, around 3 PM, about 1000 members of several Meitei youth organizations entered a Kuki village with force and engaged in violence by vandalizing houses as well as committing arson. They had various weapons including AK rifles, .303 rifles, SLR, and INSAS.
Scared of the violence in the area and threatened with losing their lives, the women victims were attempting to run through the forest, along with the brother and father of one of the victims. They were then saved by the Nongpok Sekmai police and were on their way to the police station when they were allegedly snatched from police custody as a mob blocked their way.
Before the accused reached the Kuki village, they saw some people from the mob bringing two women victims from another place. The order states that the accused then joined the mob that was tearing off the women’s clothes. The women were brought to a field and a large group of people gathered around them when the accused was unable to find ‘his way in’, the order says.
The accused got a call from his wife when he was in the meantime asking where he was. As he made his way towards his home, he noticed two dead bodies in a drain. The two naked women were running towards the dead bodies, seeing this, the accused started pelting stones at them. The women picked up their clothes and ran away.
The order describes the Manipur horror incident with dreadful details
Taking help from the information that Huirem gave to the police, they arrested another accused, Arun. The order stated that Arun was having lunch with his friends at his house before the incident. After lunch, they stepped outside and saw a big mob going into a police station. Arun watched the events unfolding from a distance for a while but when the mob came back from the police station, he joined them to move to nearby villages where Kuki people resided.
The order adds that Jiban, another accused, made a call to his friends and many other people from the village to discuss all that happened on 3rd May. Jiban was a part of the mob that was responsible for vandalising the Kuki villages. When he saw the mob encircling 4 people (2 men and 2 women) from the Kuki community, he encouraged everyone and the mob progressed to parade the unclothed women down the road.
Jiban continued to be a part of the incident and recorded it on his mobile phone. After a few days of the events, he shared the video with his cousin who was then also arrested by the police.
The order also states that during the parading of the naked women victims, many people from the mob groped them.
