SC issues notice to Manipur govt on plea of another woman stripped, paraded naked by mob

The Supreme Court of India, on Friday, issued notice to the Manipur government seeking a response on another shocking incident where a woman claimed that she was stripped naked by the mob and paraded, but police did not come to rescue her.

Issuing the notice to the Biren Singh-led government in Manipur, a bench of apex court comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra listed the matter for hearing on 13 October along with the main matter.

In the petition, filed through advocate Amrita Sarkar, it was stated that women too were part of the mob who allegedly hit the survivor’s one-year-old child.

It also mentioned that due to this violence, the woman suffered fractures in her hand and serious injuries on her head.

“Petitioner No.2’s clothes were torn by the mob and she was made to parade till Deputy Commissioner’s building in Imphal where the police were standing but nobody came to her aid,” the plea stated.

The petition also alleged inaction by the Manipur police in another case where two people, including one woman, were beaten to death by a “mob of Meitei Community.”

“The father of the Petitioner No.1 has filed FIR on 20.05.2023 regarding the said incident. However, till date there has been no action taken by the Respondent (State of Manipur) against such radicalised Meitei groups,” the plea added.

It further stated that petitioners, belonging from the Kuki community, were allegedly brutally tortured and their family members were killed before their eyes.

The plea said that the two surviours, after lot of hardships, reached Delhi where they are undergoing medical treatment and have been uproated from their hometown.

The court had earlier expressed its anguish over the manner in which women have been subjected to grave acts of sexual violence during ethnic violence in Manipur.

The SC had also set up a committee comprising three woman judges to inquire into the violence against women in Manipur and appointed former Maharastra DGP Dattatray Padsalgikar to look into investigation carried out by the CBI that involves cases of sexual violence against women and children and other remaining FIRs registered by the Manipur Police.

The two tribal women in a viral video who were paraded naked and allegedly gang-raped in Manipur the day after the violence broke out on 3 May, 2023, had approached the Supreme Court claiming that the Manipur Police collaborated with the mob to allow perpetration of sexual violence on them.

With inputs from IANS