New Delhi: In a northeastern state where months of ethnic violence have claimed at least 120 lives, Indian police have detained four men on suspicion of stripping two women in front of a crowd.
A video clip of the incident from early May that went viral on social media on Wednesday and sparked outrage across the nation helped identify the suspects.
Police in Manipur announced late Thursday that "Four main accused have been arrested in the viral video Case." In the state where the authorities have imposed an Internet shutdown, the video clip showed the women walking along a street while completely exposed while being jeered at and harassed by a crowd.
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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the state government of Manipur, which is led by the ruling Hindu-nationalist party, claimed that police intervened when the video appeared on social media more than two months after the incident.
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According to a tweet from the state's chief minister, N. Biren Singh, a "thorough investigation" was ongoing. He continued, "We will make sure that severe action is taken against all of the offenders, including looking into the possibility of capital punishment." The incident occurred at the beginning of the unrest in Manipur, which was brought on by a disagreement over who was eligible for government jobs and other benefits. Tens of thousands of people fled to government-run camps after their homes and churches were set on fire. The intermittent clashes between vigilante gangs from rival communities have persisted, pitting the primarily Christian Kuki in the nearby hills against the majority Meitei, who are mostly Hindu and live in and around Imphal.
Manipur Tribal Forum, a civil society organization, claimed in a thorough report submitted to the court in June that numerous gruesome acts of violence, such as rape and beheadings, had gone uninvestigated by state authorities. One such incident reportedly showed a BJP lawmaker's aide in the state holding the severed head of a victim on Twitter on Thursday. It quickly vanished from the platform. As a form of affirmative action, the Kuki community had protested Meitei demands for reserved public job quotas and college admissions, igniting long-standing concerns that they might also be permitted to purchase land in areas currently set aside for tribal groups.
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In his first public comments on the violence on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has come under fire from opposition lawmakers, said that the incident "shamed" the nation. The Modi administration was also given a warning by the Indian Supreme Court: "We will" take action if it does not.