‘I have thought of taking my life’: A Meitei woman recalls how she was raped by a mob

On August 9, a first information report was filed at a police station in Bishnupur district in Manipur’s Imphal valley. It recorded a woman’s account of being sexually assaulted by a mob in Churachandpur district on May 3, in the midst of the ethnic clashes that had broken out between the Meitei and Kuki communities.

The FIR briefly made news – it was the first reported instance of a Meitei woman alleging sexual violence during the clashes. Until then, the only accounts of sexual violence that had surfaced in Manipur’s ongoing conflict involved Kuki women.

Since then, the investigators appear to have made no headway in the case, prompting the 37-year-old survivor to break her silence.

In a conversation at a centre run by Manipur’s social welfare department, she told Scroll: “I wanted justice and the perpetrators to be punished but there has been a lull since I reported the case.”

Clad in a pink phanek and blouse, with a dupatta covering her head, the woman hesitatingly recounted the events of May 3, when the ethnic violence sweeping the state arrived at her doorstep.

Around 5.30 pm, a Kuki mob began to circle the Meitei homes in her village, located about 35 km from the Churachandpur district headquarters, in an area dominated by Kukis.

“My sister in law asked me to gather all the children and run with her,” the survivor recalled.

Her husband, along with their landlord, attempted to pacify the young men in the mob. “We tried reasoning with them not to burn our homes, but they wouldn’t listen,” the husband, a 50-year-old man, recalled. “They torched all the houses one after the other, and we all got busy dousing the fire.”

After some time, he ran to his mud house – “to see if my family was okay,” he said.

By then, his wife and children had fled, along with his sister-in-law and her children.

The escape – and the fall

The sister-in-law recalled: “We took shelter in a pucca house 100 metres away and from there we could see all the houses around us burning.” They saw that many villagers were running towards a multi-storied Ibomcha building, which lay about 500 metres away.

“We decided to run with our children too,” the sister-in-law said. “We thought we would be safer there with everyone.”

The survivor’s sons, aged 7 and 11, ran alongside as she carried her four-and-a-half-year-old niece on her back. Her sister-in-law carried her two-and-a-half-year-old son, the youngest of them all.

To get to the Ibomcha building, they needed to cross a narrow, old bridge built over a rivulet.

Before she could reach the bridge, however, the survivor fell. The weight of her niece on her back got the better of her, she recalled. “I fell and hurt my knee and forehead. I tried to get up and run but couldn’t,” she said.

Her sister-in-law said she had already crossed the bridge by then. “I ran back to help her but she said ‘you run ahead with the children, I will follow you.’”

“Behind her I saw a mob coming towards her, they were dressed in black,” the sister-in-law added.

But the survivor insisted that she follow her instructions: “I wanted my children to be safe. That was my priority, so I told her to run with our children, protect them.”

‘I pleaded and told them to stop’

The survivor said she couldn’t protect herself as the mob closed in.

“I tried to run again, but my knee was badly bruised. It hurt,” she said, showing a faded scar on her knee.

She could hear the men shouting in the Kuki language, which she didn’t understand. All she could make out was that they were angry.

“One by one, they put their hands inside my blouse, and molested me as I struggled to free myself,” she said. “They touched me in my private parts,” she added, tearing up.

“I pleaded and told them to stop and let me go. I haven’t done anything,” she said.

Another group of 5-6 people approached. They also spoke in the Kuki language. “I thought maybe they would save me, but they too, were perpetrators,” she added.

“They pinned me to the ground and hurt me in every way possible,” she said. She screamed for help and heard her voice die down on the isolated road.

As the mob loomed over her, she remembered everything turning hazy before losing consciousness. “I couldn’t see these faces, it was dark all around, but they were wearing dark clothes, maybe black,” she said.

A search party finds her

When her sister-in-law and the children reached the Ibomcha building, they found it was overflowing with other Meitei families who had narrowly escaped the mobs.

“It was dark, there was no electricity and we were told to keep quiet lest we attract attention,” the sister-in-law said. She found a safe spot in a corner on the first floor of the building and consoled the children who were crying uncontrollably.

She told volunteers in the building that the survivor had been left behind. A search party went out to look for those separated from their families. They found the survivor later at night and brought her to Ibomcha building.

“I went downstairs and saw people were trying to wake her up. They were throwing water on her face,” the sister-in-law said.

The survivor regained consciousness. “First thing I thought about was my children, I screamed their name,” the survivor recalled. Her children, who were in another room, came running to her. “I calmed down after seeing that nothing untoward had happened to them,” she said.

However, she soon noticed that her phanek, the traditional Meitei sarong, was loosely tied. “Perhaps the people who rescued me tied it,” she said. “The mob had opened it.”

The survivor was reunited with her husband, who came looking for her, around 4 am on May 4. The Assam Rifles escorted them to a shelter home in Imphal later on the same day.

A long silence ends

For several days, the survivor kept her traumatic experience to herself. “I did not tell anyone, not even my husband,” she said.

At the relief camp, she befriended her roommate who began to notice signs of distress. “She was quiet and wouldn’t eat at all,” the roommate said. “When she told me everything, I explained to her that it was not her fault.”

The roommate encouraged her to seek justice. But the survivor hesitated.

A turning point came when she went to the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences on August 8 to seek treatment for a persistent infection and abdominal pain.

“The doctor started asking how I had infection in my private parts and for how long. I told him what had happened. He told me I should file an FIR,” the survivor said.

Dr KH Paikhomba, the gynaecologist, who examined the survivor at the hospital’s outpatient department, confirmed this. “I found she had pelvic inflammatory disease which is a sexually transmitted disease, and tenderness in the adjacent areas,” he said. “I diagnosed her with vaginitis cervicitis and recommended a few tests and medicines.” A copy of the prescription is with Scroll.

“After examining and speaking to her, I informed the medical superintendent about the case to take up the matter further,” Paikhomba added.

The doctor also referred the survivor for psychological assessment to the psychiatry department.

Dr T Hamchand, who assessed the survivor on the same day, said: “She was very depressed, tensed and suicidal when she came to me after her OPD consultation.”

In the psychological report, he noted “sleep disturbances”, “pain abdomen”, “suicidal idea off and on”, among other symptoms. Scroll has seen a copy of the report.

When the woman went back to the relief centre and told her husband about the doctor’s advice to file an FIR, he was furious. “He got angry and said what he would tell his relatives and friends. There will be no more respect in the society,” the survivor said.

The roommate recalled: “She was very worried and felt scared. She felt everyone would know but I told her we are all with her and it is not her fault.”

The next day, the survivor went to Bishnupur police station. The police registered a zero FIR and then transferred the case to Churachandpur police station on the same day. While FIRs are usually lodged in the police station under the alleged crime’s jurisdiction, a zero FIR lets any police station accept and register a complaint and then forward it to the relevant station.

The FIR was booked against “unknown Kuki miscreants” under Indian Penal Code sections for gangrape (376 D), assault or criminal force to women with intent to outrage her modesty (354), criminal conspiracy (120 B), among others.

A few days later, the survivor was called for questioning at the Churachandpur police station. The investigating officer was a Kuki woman. The survivor felt “triggered and irritated” having to describe her ordeal to a Kuki officer. “I did not want to talk to her. It was Kukis who did that to me,” she said.

On September 2, Manipur police transferred the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation, which contacted the survivor ten days later.

There have been no arrests made in the case so far. “The survivor did not identify or name any individual. Hence, arrests have not been made,” a police officer from Churachandpur said.

A call for justice

The survivor feels dejected. “They said I would get justice, but no action has been taken,” she said.

“Several times, I have thought of taking my life along with my children,” she said, adding that she has frequent panic attacks, followed by loss of sleep and diarrhoea.

“She lives in fear and shame,” said RK Vijaylaxmi, a community counsellor.

A gynaecologist and a psychiatrist from the Manipur Health Service have been doing regular check-ups of the survivor. She has been undergoing medical treatment for frequent diarrhoea, abdominal pain and infection, Dr Helena Ngangom, a gynaecologist at Manipur Health Service, said.

“She has hallucinations and flashbacks,” Vijaylaxmi said.

Her sister-in-law, meanwhile, is grappling with guilt. “I still regret not going back again to save her. I don’t know how to apologise to her,” she said.