WOMEN SET FIRE TO HOUSE OF MAN ACCUSED OF BEING IN MOB PARADING KUKI WOMEN NAKED

Women attacked the home of the primary suspect in a sexual assault case that has outraged the country in the northern Indian state of Manipur.

Authorities claimed that the suspect dragged two tribal women onto the streets and then incited a mob to rape and display them naked.
Since May ethnic riots between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo clans engulfed the India’s remote state.

The sexual assault occurred more than two months ago, but it came to public light last week after a brief video went viral on social media.

The main suspect, identified as Khuirem Herodas, a Meitei, was arrested on Thursday hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, breaking his nearly 80-day silence on Manipur violence, condemned the alleged sexual assault as “shameful” and promised tough action.

Three others also were arrested and a police official said were tracing at least 30 others involved in the crime.

 Horrific details

One of the survivors, who spoke to Scroll, claimed that the attack happened close to her town, B Phainom, in the Kangpokpi area on May 4, a day after fighting broke out between the Meitei and Kuki clans.

After they heard Meitei mobs were “burning homes” in a nearby village, her family and others escaped through a dirt lane, but a mob found them, she said. Her neighbour and his son were taken a short distance away and killed, she alleged. The mob then began to assault the women, she said, asking them “to strip off our clothes”.

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“When we resisted, they told me: ‘If you don’t take off your clothes, we will kill you’,” said the woman, who is in her forties. She said she took off “every item of clothing” only in order to “protect herself”. All the while, the men allegedly slapped and punched her. She said she was not aware of what was happening to her 21-year-old neighbour, because she was some distance away.

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The woman alleged that she was then dragged to a paddy field near the road, and asked by the men 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’, but ultimately they did not,” she said.

She added that she was “lucky” they did not go to that extent [of raping her]. “But they grabbed my breasts,” she said.

Protests were planned in several parts of India by rights groups demanding justice and swift investigations into the latest incident to raise questions about the safety of women in the country.

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 The sexual assault was reported by the victims in May after ethnic clashes began in Manipur.

At least 130 people have been killed and more than 50,000 have fled their homes since the violence erupted.

“We want to know why police failed to take swift action when they knew that women were raped and paraded naked in Manipur,” said Radhika Burman, a student in the eastern city of Kolkata who is set to lead a public demonstration on Thursday.

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Modi, who had not made any public remarks about the trouble in a state ruled by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), spoke a day after the videos showing women being molested went viral.

Opposition MPs who have submitted notices in both houses of the parliament to discuss the violence in Manipur stalled the proceedings on Friday.

“Manipur needs complete attention and we demand the prime minister make an elaborate statement in the parliament,” said Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of the opposition’s Congress party.