Parade Video: In charge, Manipur women cops meet victims, record statements

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 28

The Manipur Police have formed a team of women officers to investigate the viral video case and they are in the process of meeting the victims of the incident to record their statement, officials said.

The team has met family members as well as the two woman, who were disrobed and paraded on May 4 and the process of recording their statements in the presence of a woman magistrate, which will be admissible in the court of law, has begun. It is also learnt the team of investigators is trying to identify eyewitnesses and their statements will also be recorded.

The police have said they had so far apprehended seven suspects, including a juvenile, the mastermind and the person who made the viral video, and they were on the lookout for 12 other identified suspects in the case. But reacting to development, a spokesperson for the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) Ginza Vualzong said it was “too little, too late”.

The spokesperson said the outfit and people of the community would have appreciated it if the culprits were arrested before the video went viral. “The FIR was registered on May 18. There are many more such cases. Having said that, I would also like to clarify that arresting people would not solve the larger issues of the state, which has been witnessing ethnic clashes,” he noted.

Tension had mounted in the hills of Manipur after a May 4 video surfaced on June 19 showing two tribal women being disrobed and paraded by some men from the other side in Kangpokpi district.

The police had registered a case of abduction, gangrape and murder at the Nongpok Sekmai police station in Thoubal district against unidentified armed persons.

Meanwhile, in fresh bout of violence in the state, two security personnel, including an Army jawan, were injured in a gun-battle with militants in Bishnupur district of the state, the officials said.

No arrests by CBI yet

• The CBI has so far not registered a case to probe viral video case, as it has not yet received a formal notification in this regard, say sources
• MHA had told SC the Manipur Govt has sent nod to hand over case to the CBI for probe and process is on to transfer it
• CBI, which is already probing six other cases of conspiracy leading to violence, has also not made any arrest so far

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