A seventh accused was arrested in connection with the horrific video that surfaced online showing two women being paraded naked by a mob in Manipur, police said. The accused was arrested from Thoubal district on Monday.
The video of the two women has drawn widespread condemnation from all quarters. A tribal organisation in Manipur has alleged that the two women were gang-raped in a field.
The Indigenous Tribal Leaders' Forum (ITLF) alleges that the incident occurred on May 4 in Kangpokpi district, 35 kilometers from the state capital of Imphal. However, the police maintain that the incident occurred in a different district, despite the First Information Report (FIR) being filed in Kangpokpi.
The first arrest was made by the police on Thursday, July 20, a day after the 26-second video of the incident surfaced online. Three more arrests were made later that day. A fifth accused who was arrested on Saturday is a 19-year-old while the sixth person taken into custody is a minor, the police said.
The horrific incident took place a day after violence erupted between the Meitei and Kuki tribes in Manipur, following the Meitei's demand for Scheduled Tribes (ST) status. The violence in the northeastern state has so far claimed the lives of over 120 people and displaced thousands.
The conflict in Manipur has rocked the proceedings of the monsoon session of the parliament. A group of opposition MPs are staging a sit-in protest in front of Mahatma Gandhi's statue at Parliament House, demanding that the government allow a debate on the ethnic clashes in the state.
Opposition leaders have been demanding a free and unfettered debate on the Manipur issue, without any time constraints, since the monsoon session began on Thursday.
"Our demand is that the PM should come to the house and make a statement. We are ready to discuss that statement. You are speaking outside but not inside, this is an insult to parliament. It is a serious matter," Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge said.
Responding to the opposition's allegations, the BJP retorted by claiming that the opposition was shirking a debate on Manipur and criticised their "deafening silence" on violence against women in other states.
