India entrusts top federal agency with investigation into Manipur assault
India’s Central Bureau of Investigation will take over probe from the local police in Manipur
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India's federal investigative agency will probe the sexual assault of women whose video of being paraded naked sent shockwaves across India.
Home minister Amit Shah on Thursday announced that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India’s equivalent of the FBI, will take over the probe from the local police in the northeastern state of Manipur.
The video of two women from the minority Kuki community being paraded naked and assaulted by a mob of men triggered outrage in India and drew international condemnation, prompting authorities to finally take action after two months.
The incident reportedly took place on 4 May in the early stages of the violence that erupted between the Meitei and Kuki communities after some Kukis protested against calls by the mostly Hindu Meitei community to be granted protected tribal status.
Prime minister Narendra Modi broke his silence on the violence in Manipur last week, more than two months after the conflict began. He said the incident had “shamed India” and that the guilty won’t be spared.
"What happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven," he added.
The local police have arrested seven people in connection with the sexual assault, according to reports. The federal government has asked India's Supreme Court to transfer the trial out of the state, the federal home minister said on Thursday.
The person who allegedly recorded the video has also been arrested and the mobile phone used to record the video has been retrieved, Mr Shah said, adding that forensics will help connect the dots and expose the “chain” of complicity.
Opposition parties in India have accused Mr Modi of failing to restore security in the small state of 3.2 million people, which is governed by his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The prime minister is facing a non-confidence vote in the parliament, which the opposition beleive will force him to address the issue in the House for the first time.
Manipur has been torn in two, with more than 140 people killed as both communities engaged in attacks on each other’s residences and vehicles, burning down churches and temples.
The federal government has deployed around 10,000 additional soldiers from the Indian Army and the paramilitary Assam Rifles to try and restore order, but they have been unable to prevent the displacement of nearly 57,000 people in 360 living camps.
Some of the horrors that The Independent has been told about during the violence include the burning – and, in at least one case, beheading – of some of those fighting, and villages stockpiling weapons to protect their homes from attack.
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