NEW DELHI: The Manipur Police personnel allegedly drove the two women from the Kuki-Zomi community, who had sought refuge in their official gypsy, to a mob of around 1,000 Meiti rioters in Kangpokpi district, the CBI charge sheet has said. The two women were subsequently stripped naked and paraded before being sexually assaulted during the ethnic violence in the state, the charge sheet added.
The women, one of whom was the wife of a Kargil war veteran, desperately asked the police personnel to drive them to a safe location but were allegedly told by them that “there was no key” (of the vehicle) and did not provide any help, the officials giving details of the charge sheet said. A video showing two women being paraded naked surrounded by a mob of men went viral last year in July, nearly two months after the ethnic violence broke on May 4.
The CBI filed its charge sheet against six accused and a report against one Child in Conflict with the Law (CCL) before the Special Judge, CBI Court at Guwahati on October 16 last year. It has alleged that the two women were running away from a mob of around 900-1,000 persons carrying sophisticated weapons like AK rifles, SLR, INSAS and .303 rifles.
The mob had forcefully entered their village in Kangpokpi district, about 68 km south of Saikul police station, it said. The women, along with other victims, ran into the forest to escape from the mob but were spotted by the rioters who had separated the victims. Some members of the mob told the women to reach the police vehicle parked on the roadside to seek help, officials in the know of the development said.
The two women managed to get inside the vehicle, in which two police personnel and the driver were sitting. Three to four personnel were outside the vehicle. One of the male victims, who also managed to make his way inside the vehicle, kept pleading with the driver to drive them to a safe place but was told “there was no key”.
The husband of one of the victims had served the Indian Army as a subedar of the Assam Regiment. The police also did not help the father of the man sitting in the vehicle from being assaulted by the mob, the CBI alleged. Later, the driver of the police gypsy drove the vehicle towards a mob of around 1,000 people and stopped it in front of them. The victims desperately asked the police personnel to drive them to safety, but no help was provided to them.
The mob had already killed the father of one of the male victims who was sitting in the gypsy along with the two women, the agency has said. The violent mob came towards the gypsy when the police personnel fled from the scene, leaving the victims at the mercy of the crowd. The rioters dragged the women out, stripped them of their clothes and paraded them naked before sexually assaulting them, the charge sheet has said.
The CBI has charge sheeted Huirem Herodas Meitei, who was nabbed by Manipur police in July, and five others, and a report has been filed against a juvenile. The accused have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code, including those pertaining to gang rape, murder, outraging the modesty of a woman and criminal conspiracy, the CBI has said.