Manipur violence: No response received from authorities despite reaching out thrice, says NCW chief

Manipur violence. Pic/PTI

National Commission for Women (NCW) Chairperson Rekha Sharma on Friday said she had reached out thrice in the last three months to authorities in Manipur over incidents of violence against women but no response was received from them, PTI reported.

She was responding to reports in a section of the media that claimed the commission had on June 12 received a complaint about the incident of two women being paraded naked on May 4 in the ethnic violence-hit northeastern state but had not taken any action. The May 4 video surfaced online on July 19. Sharma denied receiving any report of the incident.

However, the NCW chief said that she had received other complaints regarding women issues and for that she had reached out thrice to authorities in Manipur but no response was received from them. She also shared the letters sent to authorities in the state.

Sharma had written to them over complaints of incidents of violence against women. "We had to verify the authenticity, and also the complaints were not from Manipur, some were not even from India. We reached out to authorities but no response was received from them but then we took suo motu cognisance when the video (of women being paraded naked) went viral yesterday," Sharma said.

The letters were written on May 18, May 29 and June 19. The NCW chief said she took suo motu cognisance of the incident on Friday after the video surfaced and sought explanation from authorities on the matter.

Tension mounted in the hills of Manipur after the May 4 video surfaced on Wednesday showing two women from one of the warring communities being paraded naked by a group of men from the other side.

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Friday termed the incident of two women paraded naked in Manipur "shameful and heart-wrenching" but decried the political bickering over it as unfair and worrisome, reported PTI.

In a tweet in Hindi, Mayawati said, "The atrocities committed by mobs on women in Manipur is very sad, shameful and heart-wrenching. The state and central governments should punish such criminals severely so that such heinous crimes are not repeated anywhere."

"But the politics being done on this incident is also unfair and worrying. There must be a meaningful discussion on this in Parliament. The Supreme Court itself has also taken cognizance of this incident which cannot be suppressed. That means everyone needs to be serious about the unfortunate incident," Mayawati said in another related.

(With inputs from PTI)