Guwahati/New Delhi
The house of another suspect in the Manipur sexual assault case was torched by angry locals in the second such incident in connection with the case even as the four persons arrested so far were remanded in 11-day police custody on Friday. The absconding suspect’s house was located at Wangjing in Thoubal district.
The house of the key accused, seen in the video prominently directing the mob, was torched on Thursday hours after his arrest. The FIR filed in the case on June 21 details how an armed mob of hundreds had attacked a village in Kangpokpi district and torched, looted houses, killed and committed rapes before abducting the two tribal women.
On Wednesday, a 26-second video surfaced showing the two women stripped naked, groped by a violent mob and taken towards a paddy field. The incident was of May 4, a day after violence erupted in Manipur.
The husband of one of the two women is a Kargil war veteran, who had served the Indian Army as a Subedar of the Assam Regiment. He lamented that he protected the country but could not save his wife from being humiliated.
“I fought for the nation in the Kargil war and was also in Sri Lanka as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force. I protected the nation but am dejected that after my retirement, I could not protect my home, my wife and fellow villagers. I am sad, depressed,” he told a Hindi news channel.
Police said the four arrested, were remanded in police custody till July 31 by a court in Thoubal district.
In Parliament, proceedings in both the Houses were paralysed for the second consecutive day over the issue of the ethnic violence in Manipur even as Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in the Lok Sabha the government was ready for a discussion on the matter. Opposition members demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi make a statement followed by a debate.
The Congress demanded that President Droupadi Murmu exercise her powers to dismiss the state government.
Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh said people of the state consider women as their ‘mother’ but the miscreants who disrobed the two tribal women have tarnished the State’s reputation. “We have launched protests to condemn the incident across the state, both in valley areas and the hills.” Singh said, adding people are demanding that the culprits get the strictest punishment.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge demanded that the Prime Minister make an elaborate statement in Parliament on the Manipur situation, saying he could have dismissed the State Chief Minister instead of making “false equivalence” with Congress- governed states if he was angry over the matter.
BJP MP Locket Chatterjee broke down as she cited a number of cases of crime against women, including alleged disrobing, in West Bengal during and after the recent panchayat polls. “The situation in Manipur also prevails in West Bengal,” she told reporters in Delhi, as she hit out at West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
