Last year, shocking images of the stripping and parading of two women in the eastern India state of Manipur came out and horrified the nation. Now, the chargesheet submitted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) about the incident has come out.
The Indian Express reported on Tuesday , citing the chargesheet filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), that before a crowd paraded the two women from the Kuki-Zomi group naked and assaulted them, they had sought refuge inside a police Gypsy parked beside the road. However, when they asked the police driver to start the vehicle, he stated there was “no key”.
Two other male victims were also in the police Gypsy. According to the chargesheet, all of the police officers present left from the spot as the mob pulled out the victims from the vehicle.
According to the CBI investigation, the incident happened in Churachandpur on May 3. In October, a chargesheet was filed against six people and a juvenile at Guwahati’s special court. The two ladies, one in her 20s and the other in her 40s were forced to walk nude towards a field by a group of men in a video that went viral in July.
What does the CBI chargesheet say?
According to a report by news agency PTI, the women, one of whom was the wife of a Kargil war veteran, pleaded with the police personnel to drive them to a safe location but were allegedly told that “there was no key” for the vehicle. They later drove them right to the mob and refused to go any further, the chargesheet said.
The document states that the mob that the women were running from was 900-1,000 people strong and many of its members carried sophisticated weapons. The mob allegedly “burnt to the ground” all the houses of the women’s village, B Phainom in Kangpokpi district, after vandalising them.
While the village was being ransacked, the three women and seven others ran into the Haokhongching forest nearby to hide from the mob, but were spotted. The chargesheet states that one of the two women who was gang-raped and paraded naked was unwell.
The CBI has chargesheeted Huirem Herodas Meitei, Arun Kungongbam, Ningombam Tomba Singh, Yumlemban Jiban Singh, Pukrihongbam Surunjoy Meiti and Nameirakpam Kiran Meiti and a report has been filed against a juvenile.
“Their deliberate actions which specifically targeted victims from the tribal community, included threats, violence and various unlawful acts, aimed at promoting enmity between different groups,” the chargesheet said.
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.