A day after a May 4 video surfaced on social media showing two Kuki-Zomi women being paraded naked and sexually assaulted by a group of men in Manipur, one of the victims, who is in her 20s, told the Indian Express that 'the police had given them over to the mob'.
She and a woman in her 40s were paraded naked by a mob, as seen in the video. Some of the men are then shown dragging the two women to a field and sexually assaulting them.
The report quoted the woman as saying that when the murderous mob had attacked their village, they were accompanied by the police who later picked the women up and left them on a road with the mob at a place a little further away from their village. "We were given to them (the mob of men) by police," she said.
The father and brother of the woman were allegedly killed by the mob. The woman told IE that after the murders and the dastardly crimes committed against them, the mob left them there. The women then escaped.
The IE report also stated that the younger woman was brutally gang raped by the mob, as per their police complaint filed on May 18.
The village where the women hailed from, identified as B Phainom Village in Kangpokpi district, was burnt down completely, according to media reports.
A case of abduction, gang rape and murder was registered at Nongpok Sekmai Police Station (Thoubal district) against unknown armed miscreants on July 19.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Thursday said it was "very deeply disturbed" by the video and asked the Centre and Manipur government to take immediate action.
It observed that using women as an instrument to perpetrate violence in a charged atmosphere is simply unacceptable and that the visuals indicated gross constitutional violation and infraction of human rights.
Manipur Police has made the first arrest in the case on Thursday morning, Chief Minister N Biren Singh said, while promising "a thorough investigation and strict action, including possible capital punishment."
At least 150 people have been killed and several hundred injured since ethnic violence broke out in the state on May 3, when a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.