A year before Kolkata, the Supreme Court took over Manipur rape cases. Did this result in justice?
Lawyers representing the women and their families say very little progress has been made in the cases.
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On July 19 last year, a video of two Kuki women being paraded naked and assaulted by a mob of Meitei men led to nationwide outrage as it revealed how women in Manipur had faced sexual violence as the state slipped into a civil war-like situation.
A day after the video surfaced, the Supreme Court took suo motu cognizance of the case, calling it “deeply disturbing” – just as it intervened a few days ago in the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College. The 31-year-old medical professional’s death on August 9 has sparked massive protests in the capital of West Bengal.
In subsequent hearings last year, the court went on to order investigation into 17 cases of sexual violence against women and children in Manipur by the Central Bureau of Investigation and said that the investigations would be “monitored by this court”.
Scroll had reported on several of these cases, including the assault on four Kuki women, as well as the alleged rape of a Meitei woman.
The court appointed Dattatray Padsalgikar, former director general of police, Maharashtra, to supervise the special investigative teams or SITs of the CBI formed to probe these cases. The court also constituted a committee headed by former judge Gita...
