In the horrific Manipur video case, the four accused, who were allegedly part of the mob who paraded two women naked in Manipur, were remanded to 11-day custody, till July 31, on Friday by a court in Thoubal district.
The arrests were made on Thursday, a day after the 26-second video surfaced on July 19, triggering massive outrage across the nation as well as call for action.
Meanwhile, the house of another suspect, located at Wangjing in Thoubal district, was vandalised and torched by angry locals on Friday afternoon, police said. He is yet to be arrested and is absconding. On Thursday, the house of the key accused was torched, hours after he was arrested by the police. In the video, he was seen prominently directing the mob at B. Phainom village of Kangpokpi district.
An FIR filed in the sexual assault case on June 21 detailed how an armed mob, nearly a thousand strong, had attacked a village in Kangpokpi district and allegedly torched, looted houses, killed and raped wantonly before abducting the two tribal women. A complaint in connection with the video incident, which reportedly took place on May 4, a day after ethnic violence broke out in the state, was filed at the Saikul police station in Senapati district on May 18. The FIR was then transferred to Nongpok Sekmai in Thoubal district on June 27.
Meanwhile, the husband of one of the women seen in the video is a Kargil war veteran, and served the Indian Army as a Subedar of the Assam Regiment.
He rued that though “he protected the country” but could not save his “wife from being humiliated”. “I fought for the nation in the Kargil war and was also in Sri Lanka as part of the Indian Peace Keeping Force. I protected the nation but am dejected that after my retirement, I could not protect my home, my wife and fellow villagers… I am sad, depressed,” he told a Hindi news channel, as quoted by PTI.