A 20-year-old Kuki woman who was gang-raped in Manipur in May 2023 died on January 10 of a prolonged illness linked to her injuries.
Her family said she never fully recovered from the physical and psychological trauma of the assault, Newslaundry reported on Saturday.
“For the last two years, she lived in constant fear,” her mother, Lhingnei Haokip told the news outlet. “She used to tell me that she did not want to live anymore. Once, she told me that everyone knew what had happened to her and that she felt extremely vulnerable because of it.”
The woman said she was kidnapped in Imphal on May 15, 2023, while she was attempting to withdraw cash from an ATM. Over the next several hours, she was allegedly attacked at multiple locations across the city and repeatedly forced into different vehicles by groups of men, some of whom she claimed were linked to the radical Meitei group Arambai Tenggol. She managed to escape only after an auto-rickshaw driver came to her aid.
After fleeing, she was taken to relief camps in Kangpokpi district. She later underwent medical treatment at hospitals in Manipur and neighbouring Nagaland.
A medical report from Kohima recorded her injuries as “alleged case of assault and rape,” Scroll reported.
The case was first reported to the National Commission for Women in June 2023.
A month later, in July 2023, she filed a police statement and a zero first information report was registered before the case was transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation. More than two years later, no arrests have been made in the woman’s case.
The Kuki-Zo community held a candlelight vigil in Churachandpur in her memory on Saturday.
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