Manipur’s horror file: Two women picked out from car wash, raped and killed, says FIR

 Although over two months have passed since the FIR was filed, there is little evidence that any action has been taken, sources told this newspaper

Devadeep Purohit, TT,  Calcutta, 22.07.23 :  Two more alleged instances of unspeakable brutality have surfaced in Manipur, a day after chief minister and BJP leader Biren Singh conceded that “hundreds” of instances similar to that portrayed in a chilling video had taken place in the state since May 3.

In new incidents that are being reported now, two Kuki women in their twenties were allegedly raped and murdered after they were picked out from a group of employees of a car wash in Imphal city on May 4.

An FIR, lodged by the mother of one of the victims on May 16, says that the women aged 21 and 24 were “brutally murdered” after they were “raped and tortured”.

May 4, a day after the clashes erupted in Manipur, was also when two other women —as shown in the video — were paraded naked in another district and one of them was allegedly gang-raped.

The May 16 zero FIR, a kind that can be filed at any police station regardless of the place where the offence occurred, was lodged by the mother of the younger murder victim with Saikul police station in Kangpokpi district. The names of the victims are in the public domain now but Indian laws prevent the media from identifying victims of sexual offences.

Although over two months have passed since the FIR was filed, there is little evidence that any action has been taken, sources told this newspaper.

In the FIR, the mother blamed unknown persons belonging to organisations like the Meitei Youth Organisation, Meitei Leepun, Kangleipak Kanba Lup (KKL) and the Arambai Tengol — radicalised armed groups — for the murder of the two women.

A cousin of the younger victim recounted that more than 100 Meitei men and women had searched for the two women through May 4 and found them inside a room in the car wash.

“It was a planned attack.... The Meitei people in the area knew that there were two Kuki girls working at the car wash and their only target was these two girls, not the boys belonging to another community,” the cousin said.

According to her, the Meitei group reached the car wash in the morning but left as the two were hiding. During the day, the two women tried to flee but could not because of the situation in Imphal city, which was burning.

“The group again came in the afternoon around 4pm and got all the boys working at the facility out on the road. They threatened to kill the boys if they did not reveal the whereabouts of the two women,” she told The Telegraph over the phone.

The cousin said that one of the younger employees panicked and told the attackers where the two were hiding inside the car wash.

The group entered the facility, letting out war cries, she said. “The Meitei women present there were prodding the guys to rape the girls and kill them,” the cousin added.

“They entered the facility around 5pm and they took turns entering the room where the poor girls were hiding. They tortured them brutally before raping them. After around two hours, they took the two outside the car wash.... The bodies were recovered by the police later in the evening,” she said.

Another FIR, lodged suo motu by Manipur police at Porompat police station on the night of May 4, corroborates the murder of the women but does not mention rape. This FIR recorded that they were severely injured because of an unspecified attack.

The FIR suggests that an officer of the police station was assigned to investigate the matter, but the younger victim’s mother said that no one from the police got in touch with the families.

Now, the families of the victims are staying in a relief camp as their village has been burnt down.

“You never know about our state police.... They may ask for video evidence of rape and torture to initiate action,” said the cousin, recalling that she had exchanged texts with the younger victim through the afternoon of May 4 before the messages stopped.

The cousin said she got to know of the entire chronology of the incident from one of the boys who, along with other male employees of the car wash, had been confined to another room while the Meitei men were brutalising the two women.

The cousin had spoken with the boy on May 10 and got the entire account recorded.

“He told me that the Meitei group freed them after they took the two girls out of the car wash.... The boys were shocked when they entered the room as they found the floors, walls and furniture soaked in blood and shreds of their clothes lying around. I was told that they found hair strands strewn around. My cousin’s friend had long hair. Just imagine the kind of brutality she had to deal with,” she said.

The audio clip of the conversation between the cousin and the boy surfaced in Manipur on Friday.

A senior bureaucrat in a Union ministry, who hails from the region, said: “(The 24-year-old woman) had recently completed her studies and was planning to open a beauty salon.... She had taken up the job at the car wash just as a temporary assignment. (The younger woman) was working there for the past two years. Both of them were from (the same Kuki village) and were in Imphal to pursue their dreams. The goons raped and killed them.”

He added: “We want justice for our two sisters and we will intensify our movement."

The Kuki-Zo Unity Forum has already launched a campaign seeking justice for the two young women.

“Their cold and lifeless bodies are still lying in the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences in Imphal.... The authorities haven’t even handed over their bodies to the families. Something inside me always dies when I imagine what these two young women had to go through. Nobody, nobody deserves to be treated like this,” said the bureaucrat, choking up, although he did not know them personally.