Sisters raped and murdered in Imphal: Man tells DCW chief amid Manipur violence

Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal on Monday said that two siblings were raped and murdered in Imphal amid the ethnic clashes in strife-torn Manipur.

The victims’ brother told Maliwal that neither any minister nor any official of the state administration has met the family.

Sharing the video of the conversation, Maliwal said she met the brother of the victims in Kangpokpi during her recent visit to Manipur and called the situation “very worrying”.

The sisters, 21 and 24, were college students but were working at a mall in Imphal as the session was yet to start.

“It was told that 21- and 24-year-old girls were gang-raped and murdered in Imphal. Met the girl’s brother in the midst of a shootout in Manipur’s Kongpokpi. He told that he hasn’t even received the bodies yet. No arrest took place. CM or officer did not come to meet and there was no help. The situation is very worrying,” Maliwal said in a tweet in Hindi.

In the video, the man can be heard saying that an FIR has been filed in the case but no arrest has been made yet. He said her mother is living in a relief camp and his father’s health has deteriorated after the incident. He told the DCW chief that his last memory of his sisters was of the Christmas celebrations when they were visiting the hometown.

Maliwal assured that he will get justice and said the commission would like to provide legal help.

“I’m really sorry for your loss and I will try my best that justice will come. I very sure of it and we will work towards it. We would like to provide legal help because I think this matter should be raised to the court. Whatever help I can do, I will definitely do it,” Maliwal told the man.

Horrific stories of violence against women have surfaced since the video of two Kuki women being stripped and paraded by a mob went viral on social media triggering a nationwide outrage.

The Supreme Court on Monday described the violence perpetrated against women in strife-torn Manipur as of “unprecedented magnitude” saying now it will not want the state police to probe the matter as they virtually handed over the women to the rioting mob.

The bench, which listed a clutch of pleas on Manipur violence for hearing on Tuesday, said though the incident of stripping and parading these women came to light on May 4 why the Manipur police took 14 days to register an FIR on May 18.

“What was police doing? Why was an FIR in video case transferred to magisterial court on June 24, that is after one month and three days,” asked the bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.

“This is horrendous. There are media reports that these women were handed over to mob by the police. We also do not want the police to handle it,” the bench said.

Scores of people have been killed and several hundred injured since ethnic violence broke out in the state on May 3 when a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the majority Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status.