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Journalism of Courage
Four personnel of the India Reserve Battalion were suspended Tuesday for allegedly forcing a couple to have sex in their presence,recording it and uploading the video on the Internet.
The four include two havaldars and all belong to 1 IRB. They were arrested in Manipurs Churachandpur district Monday and have been remanded to police custody for six days.
The incident allegedly occurred last week at Khuga dam in Churachandpur where the four IRB men caught a couple having sex. The Khuga dam is a restricted area and the personnel who were stationed there were on patrol.
They allegedly forced the couple to continue and filmed them. The video was later put on the internet where it went viral. Locals allege that the IRB personnel also abused the woman and may even have molested her.
The incident sparked protests and there has been widespread outrage against the IRB personnel. Their involvement came to light when womens organisations in Churachandpur questioned the couple involved in the incident and took them to the police.
The protests turned violent Monday night as some people tried to storm the Churachandpur police station demanding that the IRB men be handed over to them. The police opened fire with blank rounds to control the mob and injured 24 people. Six of them were hospitalised and one among them is learnt to be critical.
