A tribal body of Manipuris has claimed that they wrote to the National Commission of Women (NCW) on June 12 about the horrific brutalisation of Kuki women — a video of which has now gone viral — but received no response.
The North American Manipur Tribal Association (NAMTA) and Kuki Academics based in India and USA had written to the commission 37 days before the video of the Kuki women being paraded naked and gang-raped shook the country.
CNN-News18 has seen a copy of the letter and the email which shows the date. “We received no acknowledgement or reply to our letter which detailed the sexual violence that women were facing,” one of the signatories told CNN-News18, requesting anonymity for security reasons.
In its response, NCW said they had received complaints which were forwarded to Manipur CS and DGP.
NAMTA and the academics had given specific details of the May 4 crime in the letter emailed to chairperson-ncw@nic.in, complaintcell-ncw@nic.in and northeastcell-ncw@nic.in. News18 has seen screenshot of the email sent.
Detailing what happened to the hapless Kuki survivor, the letter stated: “On May 4, two women from B. Phainom village of Kangpokpi District of Manipur were disrobed, paraded naked, beaten, and then encircled by a marauding Meitei mob and raped in public.”
It added: “The state police commandos remained mere spectators while the mobs remained silent spectators to the lynchings and torching of homes. The two survivors are housed at a Churachandpur district relief camp.”
In a press statement, NCW acknowledged that it had received the complaint and said: “Another complaint was received from individuals outside Manipur out of which one was from outside India. In this regard, the D.O letter dated 19/06/2023 from Commission (NCW) was immediately sent to CS for taking necessary action.”
However, what the commission failed to answer was why no follow-up action was initiated for a month.
On July 20, when the video of the violence went viral, NCW tweeted that it had taken suo moto cognizance of the incident and asked the DGP for answers. “NCW condemns the Manipur incident. Taking suo moto cognizance. The DGP Manipur has been asked to promptly take appropriate action. @sharmarekha @MinistryWCD" the tweet said.
Speaking to News18, NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma said: “Many complaints from Manipur came to us and we immediately forwarded them to DGP and CS. After the video became viral, we again spoke to CS and DGP regarding the incident. Today also I spoke to the CM. Some people are trying to malign NCW, this is wrong. We did take action."
On the DGP’s alleged inaction, she said: “I don’t know what is the situation on ground. I spoke to CM regarding how again and again I sought response from DGP but there was response. CM assured me that he will speak to the DGP."
Unanswered questions
The revelation of the letter, however, has left several questions unanswered.
First, if the NCW was aware of the crime since June 12 and had written about it to Manipur Chief Secretary and DGP, what suo moto cognizance was being taken on July 20?
Second, why was no answer sought for a month?
Third, did NCW make any attempt to reach out to the survivors whose location in security camp Churachandpur was mentioned in the complaint?
The NCW said in a press statement that a second complaint was received from a group based in Manipur, which was forwarded from the NCW Chairperson to the CS and DGP of Manipur on May 23 for taking ‘immediate action’. So was no follow up done on this complaint too?
In the letter written by the group, a number of instances of rape and sexual assault have been highlighted.
“We make an earnest appeal to the National Commission for Women to urgently assess the disproportionate victimization of Kuki-Zomi indigenous tribal women through brutal and inhumane acts of sexual violence, including rape, kidnapping, public lynching, immolation, and murder. As a statutory body of the Government of India that appraises policy matters concerning women in India and advocates for their human rights and dignity, we appeal to your Commission and affiliated statutory bodies to take a firm stance against using rape as a weapon of conflict and vigilante justice and recognise these abhorrent practices a serious abuse of the fundamental human and women’s rights of Kuki-Zomi women,” the letter stated.
The letter also listed five other incidents of alleged sexual violence and requested NCW to take suo moto cognisance. “We humbly and urgently request you to take suo moto cognizance of the matter and if possible, constitute an Inquiry Committee. We have faith in the Constitution of India and the enormous power that the National Commission for Women (NCW) exercises to create a just world," the letter stated.
On what basis were allegations made?
A Hyderabad-based professor, who did not want the identity to be revealed, has been quoted in the letter. The professor spoke to the survivors, the family and community members on the alleged sexual assault.
“We had not seen the video when we sent the complaint. There was no knowledge about it. We wrote to the NCW based on our conversations with survivors and family members in Manipur,” one of the signatories told CNN-News18 but requested that their identity be kept secret for security reasons.
Other cases listed in the letter
· On May 3 at about 9pm, mobs stormed the Manipur University campus in Imphal. They brandished sticks and knives in their systematic attempts to locate students, staff, and faculty from the Kuki-Zomi communities. Female students were forced out of their hostels, verbally harassed, and abused by the mob. Nengneivah, a Kuki-Zo Ph.D research scholar, hid in her hostel bathroom until the Assam Rifles rescued endangered students at 3.15am. She could hear the mobs conducting room-to-room searches and shouting slogans such as, ‘Sida Kuki Nupi Leibra? (Is there any Kuki Woman here?) and ‘Kuki Nupi Hatlo’ (Kill Kuki women).
· On May 4, 22-year-old Agnes Neikhohat and her friend, students at the Nightingale Nurse Institute in Imphal, were harassed and assaulted by a Meitei mob of about 40 people. “Rape her! Torture her! Cut her into pieces!” Meitei women shouted as the attackers pummelled Ms Haokip, knocking out her front teeth.
· On May 5, Themnu and Chongpi, young women in their twenties, hailing from H Khopibung village of Kangpokpi district, were raped and murdered in the Konung Mamang area of Imphal. Meitei miscreants gagged, dragged, and confined the women in a closed room for 2 hours. Their employer could not protect them, and when the room was finally opened at about 7 pm, it was filled with a mixture of blood and hair, and the victims had succumbed to their injuries from the brutal assaults. The victims’ bodies remain in the JNIMS (Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences) morgue in Imphal to date, and the victims’ parents cannot retrieve the bodies to conduct last rites due to the prevailing volatile situation.
· On May 6, a forty-five year old widow and mother of two, Thiandam Vaiphei, was brutally butchered, shot and burned by Meitei mobs in Pheitaiching village of Kangpokpi district.
· On May 15, an eighteen-year-old girl was kidnapped from Checkon, Imphal. A mob of Meitei men and women took her to a compact settlement in Wangkhei. Upon resisting, the men threatened to chop her into pieces and physically and sexually assaulted her. Her medical examination report, conducted by a hospital in Kohima, Nagaland, confirmed assault and rape. The victim is undergoing medical treatment, including surgical repair of genital and jaw injuries.
Meanwhile, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, while speaking about why police action in the viral video case came so late, said there are “thousands of such FIRs”. Top police officials told News18 the number of FIRs alleging gender-based violence could be close to 6,000.