ITANAGAR, 20 Jul: The Rights and Risks Analysis Group (RRAG) has welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision to take suo moto action against the perpetrators who paraded two women naked and gangraped them in a village in Senapati district of Manipur on 4 May.
“The perpetrators also murdered the brother of the gangrape victims when he tried to save them,” the RRAG stated in a press release on Thursday.
It said that “the government of India, instead of taking action against the war criminals, is shooting at the messenger, ie, Twitter, where egregious videos were shared.
“Without Twitter, the truth would have never come out, and no law and order problem has been created by these videos, which forced Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak for the first time on Manipur in the last 77 days of riots,” it added.
Though the FIR was lodged on 4 May, it was only at around 11 pm of 19 July that the Manipur Police tweeted that “All-out effort to arrest culprits as regard to the viral video of two women paraded naked and on 4 May, 2023, a case of abduction, gangrape and murder, etc, was registered at Nongpok Sekmai PS (Thoubal district) against unknown armed miscreants and the investigation has been started,” the RRAG said.
“In the light of the admitted inaction of the Manipur Police in 76 days, no fair investigation can be expected from the Manipur Police, and its tweets are merely to assuage the outrage expressed across the country against the savage incident and not to establish accountability for the war crimes committed.”
“Furthermore, this barbaric incident has not been referred to any other agency for investigation,” said RRAG director Suhas Chakma.
“The faith in the rule of law has collapsed because of the inaction in the last 76 days on this particular savage incident and other violations of international humanitarian laws, silence of the union of India, including the PM, till this incident and no update from both the CBI and the judicial commission of inquiry headed by retired justice Ajay Lamba regarding the progress of the investigations.
“In the light of the registration of the suo moto case by the Supreme Court, there is no justification for the continuation of the Chief Minister N Biren Singh,” Chakma added.
