Kuki victim of gangrape in Manipur ethnic violence dies after nearly 3 years of struggle with injuries, mental trauma

GUWAHATI/IMPHAL: A adult female from the chin folk who was allegedly kidnapped, gangraped and tortured in the initial years of the ethnic force in Manipur that started in May 2023, died at a hospital in the state's Churachandpur district earlier this month, the family of the victim confirmed on Sunday, January 18, 2026.She was 18 years old at the time of the incident, and was working in a beauty salon in Imphal. She was allegedly taken hostage on May 15, 2023, and taken to a hilltop in Bishnupur district where she was subjected to gangrape. She eventually managed to escape.Since the incident she was shifting between hospitals in Nagaland, Assam and Manipur getting treatment for her injuries. The victim passed away in a government hospital in Churachandpur district on January 11, her mother told HT."Since the assault happened, she was undergoing treatment and was in and out of hospitals. Later on, she was diagnosed with uterine fibrosis and other related complications. She fell ill suddenly at our home few days back and we had taken her to the hospital, but she passed away there," the mother of the victim said.Besides physical injuries because of the assault, the family mentioned that the victim was also going through deep depression and a lot of mental trauma, and had withdrawn herself. She felt worthless, said her mother.According to the family, the victim was taken hostage from an ATM kiosk in the New Checkon area by a group of women, allegedly of the Meira Paibis (a Meitei women group), and handed over to some members of Arambai Tenggol, a radical Meitei group. She was then gangraped by three persons and brutally beaten up, the family said."She managed to escape from there by telling her attackers that she needed to use the washroom. Using the opportunity, she rolled down the hilltop and fled with her hands tied. She suffered many injuries during the escape but was able to reach a road where an auto-rickshaw driver took her to Kangpokpi (a Kuki majority district)," the mother said.From there she was taken to a hospital in Kohima, Nagaland, for treatment.The family registered a transferrable ‘zero’ FIR in the Kangpokpi police station on July 21, 2023, and it was thus transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) along with several other cases from the state related to the ethnic clashes between the Meiteis and the Kuki-Zo community."No arrests have been made in the case as yet and we have not been contacted either by the Manipur police or the CBI to give any updates on the progress in investigation," the mother said.“We got some monetary compensation through the Kangpokpi district administration, but I am not sure whether it was given by the state government or Centre,” she added."She was a simple girl who had studied till Class 8, and her only goal in life was to open a beauty salon of her own," she said.A senior police officer on the condition of anonymity told HT on Sunday, “a zero FIR had been registered under section 354, 307, 364, 376 and 506 of the Indian Penal Code (before Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita replaced the code), along with provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act".The officer further said the case was handed over to CBI but whether any accused involved in the case was arrested or not is yet to be ascertained.Convenor of Imagi Meira, a Meitei women body, Th Sujata told HT on Sunday that the allegations in that case, that Meira Paibis had taken the victim hostage and later handed over to Arambai Tenggol, are “baseless and unfounded”.“Meira Paibis have been contributing for the society since decades and they have been responsible for controlling irate mobs to prevent escalation of violence on any issue. We have protested against sexual attacks and even in the incident in which two Kuki women were paraded naked (videos of which went viral), we protested and handed over the culprits to police,” Sujata asserted.“During the peak of the present crisis, we secured the release of three Kuki-Zo girls who were taken hostage and handed them over to the Singjamei police station for their safety," she added.The ethnic violence in Manipur between Meiteis, who are a majority in Imphal Valley, and the Kuki-Zo community, who are dominant in few neighbouring districts, started in May 2023. The clashes have left over 260 dead and displaced over 60,000 persons from both sides.