Manipur: All Four Accused Sent To 11-Day Custody Amid Massive Outrage

All four accused who were arrested on Thursday in connection with the viral video of women being paraded naked in Manipur were remanded to 11-day police custody on Friday. 

More arrests are to follow as the investigating team has identified at least eight more men who were involved in the incident, according to a report by Hindustan Times. 

The arrests come 77 days after the incident which has sparked a nationwide outrage. The incident which occurred on May 4 came to light earlier this week after a video went viral.

Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh took suo motu cognizance of the video and ordered an immediate probe into the matter. The state Police registered a case of abduction, gang rape, and murder, announcing an arrest on Thursday. 

Singh on Friday said the people of the state consider “women as their mother” but the miscreants who attacked and stripped two tribal women “tarnished the state’s reputation.”

However, according to the police, they “could not take any action” so far due to “lack of evidence”, reports The Indian Express

Mob burns down main accused's house

The house of one of the accused, who was seen in the viral video, was burnt down by a mob on Thursday. Reportedly, the house belonged to the main accused - Huirem Herodas Meitei. Several purported videos online showed a group of protestors, mostly women, setting the accused's house on fire.

"Mob Came At Them Like Animals" - Disturbing details from the incident emerge

The incident occurred in B Phainom village in Kangpokpi district on May 4, just a day after the ethnic clashes erupted in the State. 

While the video shows two women, one in her 20s and the other in her 40s, according to the FIR, there was another woman in her 50s who was also forced to take off her clothes by the mob. In the video, women can be seen forced to walk naked down a road and towards a field. While a few men can be seen dragging the two women, others are forcibly groping them.

The complaint also alleges that the younger woman was “brutally gang raped in broad daylight."

One of the survivors said, “When we resisted, they told me: ‘If you don’t take off your clothes, we will kill you.’ 

She added that the men dragged to a paddy field near the road and asked her to “lie down" there. “I did as they told me, and three men surrounded me… one of them told the other, ‘Let’s rape her."

The mother of one of the viral video victims alleged that the Manipur government has not done enough to control the violent situation or protest people, according to a report published by NDTV.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the incident a “disgrace for the entire country.”

Suggested Reading: Manipur Women Paraded Naked: How Low Will We Fall As A Nation?