The Chief Minister of BJP-ruling Manipur, Biren Singh has on Thursday offered a peculiar reason why his government failed to arrest the culprits who paraded two women naked two months ago. His reason had apparently defended the delay of the arrest in the midst of a national outrage against his government for its incessant inaction in mitigating the violence in Manipur that has crossed two months and counting. 

The video that surfaced online on Wednesday had shown a chilling crime where a mob of hundred men was seen making the two women from Kuki tribe to walk naked on the streets. The incident had happened on May 4, the day after when violence began in Manipur where the Meitei and Kuki communities, the two predominant ethnic groups in the state, have been clashing for over two months. The violence was sparked by a Manipur High Court verdict that granted Scheduled Tribe status to the Meiteis to occupy the lands in the habitats of Kukis. 

As the judicial verdict had changed the status quo, the Kuki community had protested against the ruling of the high court and later, the unrest from both the communities had triggered a violence that went to burn the properties and vandalize the villages. The violence broke out on May 3 and culminated to what appears to be a religious polarization as Meiteis belong to Hinduism while the Kukis have embraced Christianity. As the violence gave the people in both the communities a free hand to the arms, the state is now in a fashion where the law and order had collapsed.

On May 4, a mob of hundreds of Meitei men had stormed the village of B Phainom in the Kangpokpi district and vandalized the houses. The mob had apprehended five people - two men and three women. While the mobsters killed two men in the spot, they gangraped a 21-year-old woman. What happened next was a horror that shaken the soul of the nation - the mob forced the other two women to remove their clothes and they made them to walk naked on the streets. 

The mob went on to touch the private parts of the women and though the incident happened on May 4, it came to light on Wednesday - July 19 after the video went viral on social media. The reach of the video was in a scale that it made Prime Minister Modi, who had been a mute spectator over Manipur violence, to break his silence after two months and he said that what happened to the daughters of Manipur can never be forgiven. As the video became yet another evidence of ongoing scourges in what otherwise regarded as a jewel land of India, the Manipur police had confirmed that the women were paraded naked and another teenager was gangraped. 

The police said that the First Information Report (FIR) into this chilling crime was lodged on May 18. However, until the video went viral, there were no arrests made. The grounds of police inaction damaged the state government as the opposition leaders questioned why the police didn't arrest the culprits who made the women to walk naked even after two months. Chief Minister Biren Singh claimed on Thursday that the main culprit was arrested after the video came out and that his government would take efforts to ensure all the accused in the case would get a capital punishment. 

On Thursday, while addressing the reporters in the state capital Imphal, Biren Singh, in the midst of facing questions on why there was a delay in arresting the culprits, gave a reason that appeared to be his strong backing for the delay. In supporting the delay, Biren Singh admitted that, though it was a chilling case, it was not the only case that violence-hit-Manipur faced. He also claimed that the video came out when his government was trying to identify the case. 

Biren Singh said, "As there were many cases filed on different incidents that happened in the state and while the government was trying to identify the particular case, the video on the incident suddenly came to the surface." Speaking about the incident, Singh said that an FIR was filed on May 18 at Saikul police station and the case was transferred to Nongpok Sekmai police station in Thoubal district on June 21. However, he offered no reason why the case was transferred after more than one month.

His response of backing the delay in arresting the culprits has fueled the demand from the opposition, asking him to step down from the post. Hours after the video surfaced, the Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the video and Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud said that such an incident is unacceptable. The apex court has asked the Manipur government to inform about the measures taken to bring the perpetrators into law. According to the state police, the acute violence in Manipur had killed over 150 people and displaced over 50,000 people.