Thoubal: Charred wood and rusted, molten tin is what remains of the bamboo and mud house of Huirem Herodas in Pechi village in Thoubal district. A mob from the nearby Meitei villages set his house on fire Thursday afternoon, hours after he was arrested — one of the two apprehended from the village — by the police in connection with a video of a mob assaulting Kuki women in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district on 4 May.
Around 7.30 am on 20 July, a big police convoy arrived at Herodas’s puncture repair shop in Yairipok market and arrested him. By 2 pm, word of his arrest spread like wildfire and his parents, wife and three children aged 11, seven and three, had to take shelter in their relatives’ houses in the vicinity as a mob torched their house.
The burnt house is proof that Meitei women strongly condemn the incident, says Matouleibi Chanu, advisor to Apunba Nupi Lup (All Women’s Organisation), a civil society organisation operating in the region.
“We strongly condemn what happened to the ladies in the video. It is not about the Kukis and the Meiteis. It is about women. It feels like it happened to us. We have taken it very personally. It should not have happened in Manipur or in any part of India or the world,” says Chanu, who came to the village upon hearing of the arrival of the press.
The previous day, after a video of two Kuki women being stripped and paraded by a mob went viral, 32-year-old Herodas’ face was zoomed, cropped and circulated on social media and TV channels as that of one of the main accused. In the 26-second video, Herodas is seen grabbing one woman around her chest as he drags her to a nearby field. Many other men surrounded him, slapping and groping the woman.
The public outcry over the video was immense, driving the police to take immediate action.
Meanwhile, Herodas’s family is devastated. His mother, K. Lata Devi, comes howling to the remains of her house as ThePrint’s team reaches the village.
“I confronted my son a week ago when I first heard the rumour about his involvement in the crime. He confessed to me that he did it. But he said he didn’t do it with any personal motive. He did it as part of a mob and in the interest of our (Meitei) community,” says Devi, who watched the viral video on TV after her son’s arrest.
Men from the nearby villages who have gathered near Herodas’s house defend his act.
“He was trying to rescue the woman from the mob,” says Nilkamal, resident of neighbouring Yairipok village. “He heard the woman say, ‘Brother, save me,’ that is why he approached her,” he adds.
The only earning member of the house, Herodas dropped out of school after 10th standard.
According to Devi, even after the video surfaced on social media, he did not go into hiding. For him, it was business as usual as he believed that he did nothing wrong. The family, however, was in shock when the police arrested him.
“He has been made the main culprit. We need to get to the truth and we demand a judicial inquiry,” Oinam Naba Singh, secretary of Pechi village, tells ThePrint.
The villagers suspect that Herodas’s confession to the police perhaps led them to the other alleged accused from Pechi, 21-year-old Ningombal Tomba Singh. Singh, who has studied only till 9th standard and works as a mason, is not seen in the 26-second clip that has gone viral.
Herodas, Singh, and two other men arrested in the case as of Saturday morning, were remanded to 11-day police custody Friday.
Also read: It took a viral video of rape for India to wake up—Modi to CJI. Manipur was burning for 3 mths
‘My Husband not part of this filth’
A few metres away from Herodas’s house, Singh’s wife is inconsolable. Holding her one-year-old son in her lap, Bibi Ningongbam says, “My husband did go out on 4 May. But he is not the only one who left to save our people (Meiteis). Many others from the village went for the safety of the community.”
She adds that if found guilty, the police must prosecute him according to the law. The spot where the video was shot is a little more than three kilometres from Pechi village.
The police reached Singh’s house Thursday evening to arrest him.
“If he is part of the filth shown in the video, then legal action should be taken against him. But if he is innocent, the police should release him immediately,” says Ningongbam. “My son is just one year old. Without my husband, I cannot do anything,” she adds, wailing.
Consoling her, Chanu and other women from Apunba Nupi Lup say even in times of ethnic rift, they are bound by the law. “We have to follow what the law says,” Chanu tells ThePrint.
ThePrint reached Superintendent of Police Sachidananda Soibam through calls and messages, but had not received a response by the time of publication. This report will be updated if and when a response is received.
Crime creates fissures
Emotions are running high in Pechi and its surrounding villages. The dilemma over siding either with the Kuki women or the community is dividing Meitei villagers and women associated with the Meira Paibis (women’s organisations, such as Apunba Nupi Lup).
A heated argument along these lines erupts outside Herodas’ house as the families of the two arrested men stood there with moist eyes.
Nilkamal says that though the atrocity against the women in the video is inhuman, it prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to break his silence on Manipur.
“The prime minister spoke about the violence in Manipur after more than 70 days,” he adds. “We appreciate the boy (Herodas). It is the duty of the Meiteis to protect our land. The Kukis come and start planting poppy on our land.”
On 20 July, PM Modi said ahead of the monsoon session of Parliament that the leaked video “shamed 140 crore Indians” and that his heart was “pained”. He, however, did not speak about the larger ethnic violence that has engulfed the state for over two months now.
Men from Pechi village claimed that what happened on 4 May was a reaction to what the Kukis started in Churachandpur. “Meitei women were raped in Churachandpur. We heard that news about Churachandpur. To save our community, what he (Herodas) did is okay,” says a villager who did not wish to be named.
Earlier this month, ThePrint reported how fake news on the first few days of the violence led to a spate of sexual violence against Kuki women by Meitei men.
The Meira Paibis, on the other hand, are firmly vocal about the inhuman treatment of the two Kuki women seen in the video.
Chanu says that though she can see Herodas taking the woman away, it is for the investigation to find whether he protected her or molested her.
“The persons around the victims have to have some fault (they must’ve done something if they can be seen in the video). But we can’t judge what the man did. Only a legal inquiry into the matter will be able to tell this,” she tells ThePrint.
Meanwhile, protesting against the crime depicted in the video, Meitei women formed a human chain Friday morning in Luwangsangbam, which falls under CM N. Biren Singh’s constituency, Heingang, in Imphal East. Later, Singh addressed the women and assured them that all the culprits seen in the viral video will be caught soon.
Media reports quote Singh as saying that the people of the state consider “women as their mother” but the incident which has drawn nation-wide condemnation, “tarnished the state’s reputation”.
Since the ethnic riots started in May, this is the first time Meitei women have come out strongly in support of Kuki women victims and against men from their own community.
“This is not about the community; this is about women. Crime and war are separate. Women and children should be safe at this time. If the culprits are not arrested, we will protest again,” says Bina Rani, who participated in the protest.
Videos of killings instigating men
The internet ban in place in Manipur has not stopped videos and photos of shootings and lynchings from being circulated. Pulling out his phone, a boy from the village shows a man being shot at from point-blank range. The shooter then kicks his limp body into a shallow ditch. Neither the identity of the victim or the shooter is clear in the video, but the men in the village insist that the video shows a Kuki man shooting a Meitei.
In another video, a man wearing black clothes can be seen sitting on the floor with his face covered in blood. Unidentified men surround him, kicking and slapping him occasionally.
“Hundreds of Meiteis are still missing. Many people were killed in Churachandpur, and when the stench started emanating from the corpses, they were buried in a big ditch which was dug with JCB machines,” says the man from Pechi village quoted above.
ThePrint could not independently verify any of these claims.
Without the internet, such videos shared through apps like ShareMe are providing a constant dose of anger to the youth, which, they say, then instigates them to act.
“This is also what happened on 4 May. We were bombarded with information that Kukis had burnt, looted and vandalised Meitei properties. And that they had committed horrific crimes in Churachandpur against the Meiteis,” says Nilkamal.
That is why, when the news about spotting Kukis in Thoubul reached them, men from this village went to add strength to the mob, he adds.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
Also read: ‘Begged mob to leave me, said I am a mother’: Kuki woman in viral video recalls 2-hr assault