A zero FIR under sections pertaining to gangrape and outraging the modesty of a woman was registered on Wednesday in Manipur’s Bishnupur district on the basis of a complaint alleging that a woman in her mid-30s had been assaulted while fleeing from her home in Churachandpur on May 3. Bishnupur police said the zero FIR had been forwarded to the relevant police station in Churachandpur. Police said the victim was the complainant, but both the FIR and the complaint state that the name under which they were filed was a changed one. As per the complaint, the incident happened after some “Kuki miscreants” set the complainant’s house on fire around 6.30 pm on May 3, the day ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur. It states that the complainant fled the house with her her two sons, sister-in-law and a neice. However, she fell while running and asked her sister-in-law to go ahead with the children. The complaint states that when the woman got up, “5/6 Kuki miscreants” caught hold of her and sexually assaulted her. The miscreants were later joined by more people, states the complaint, adding that the complainant lost consciousness and later woke up in a house “surrounded by some Meitei people”. The woman stated that the delay in going to the police was because of “social stigma”. “I did not disclose the above incident to save myself and my family’s honour and to save ourselves from social ostracism… Now, I decided to come forward since I started realising that the trauma and suffering I went through because of the heinous crimes committed against me without any fault of mine. Adequate punishment should be given to the culprits for assaulting me in the most horrific manners,” states the complaint.
