Imphal, Aug 10: A month after a video of two tribal women being stripped naked in violence-hit Manipur went viral on social media, now another horrifying incident has come to light.
The incident made headlines after the survivor of sexual assault during the ethnic clash filed a police report.
The 37-year-old woman from Manipur’s Churachandpur district alleged that she was caught by a group of men while she was fleeing from her house after it was set on fire. The woman said that she was gang-raped when she was running away from her buring house with her two sons, niece, and sister-in-law and gang-raped on May 3.
This incident is said to have happened on the day when the violence broke out in the district after a rally by the hill-majority Kukis over the valley-majority Meiteis’ demand for inclusion under the Scheduled Tribes (ST) category.
“I did not disclose the incident to save myself and my family’s honour and dignity and to save ourselves from social ostracism. The delay in filing this complaint is due to social stigma. I even wanted to end myself,” the woman said in her statement attached to the ‘zero FIR’ filed with Bishnupur police station on Wednesday.
At present the victim of this heinous crime is living in a relief camp for internally displaced people.
“I carried my niece on my back and also held my two sons, and I 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, 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,” the woman said in the ‘zero FIR’ filed in Bishnupur.
The woman stated in her FIR: “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.”
The case has been filed under Sections 376D, 354, 120B, and 34 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The Manipur Police told the Supreme Court on Tuesday that over 6,500 police cases have been filed in the nearly three-month period from May 3 to July 30.
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