Manipur violence: Outrage mounts across country; minor among two held

A juvenile and a man, who were allegedly part of the mob that stripped and paraded two women naked in India's Manipur, were apprehended on Saturday, police said even as outrage and protests over the assault continued in different parts of the country.

The police have so far apprehended six people in connection with the case after a video of the incident went viral on Wednesday, sparking a nationwide outcry that jammed both Houses of Parliament, and prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to assure that the perpetrators of the barbaric sexual assault will not be spared.

"As regards to the viral video of 02 (two) women on 4th May, 2023, another accused was arrested today. Altogether six persons, including… one juvenile have been arrested/apprehended in the case so far. The state police is making all-out effort to arrest the remaining culprits by conducting raids at many suspected hideouts," the Manipur police tweeted.

Manipur police have faced criticism for not acting promptly after the first complaint in the case was lodged on 18 May, and not arresting the culprits even after the FIR was transferred to the nearest police station on 21 June. The first arrest was made on Thursday, 77 days after the assault and a day after the video of the incident went viral.

The video showed a group of men hooting and applauding as two distraught women were stripped and paraded through a field; the women were molested and groped as they walked. It fanned fresh tension in the state that has been shrouded in ethnic violence between the dominant Meitei and tribal Kuki communities that has killed at least 150 people and displaced another 50,000.

The FIR said the family fled to a forest to escape an armed mob that entered their village and vandalised houses. But when they were 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.

"We have the Aadhaar card and other identification details of the other men involved in the case. They are from villages far away from where the incident happened. The police teams have matched the identity of some accused with that of the photo identity card that we have got. A second team is on the trail of those accused men. We will be arresting more people soon," a police officer said on condition of anonymity.

The outcry over the incident continued in the ethnic violence hit state and other parts of the country on Saturday as people took out protest marches demanding swift action against the guilty.