Before Manipur video went viral, there were attempts to delete it

The horrific video of three Kuki-Zomi women stripped and paraded in Manipur was shot by an 18- year-old Yumlembhan Jiban. In an exclusive report in The Indian Express, it has said that the teenager was pressured by the elders of the village and a radical Meitei outfit to delete the video.

Incidentally, Jiban is one among the arrested by the Manipur police in regards to the assault of three women in Manipur.

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One of the relatives said, “He was advised many times by village seniors to delete the video and he kept telling us that he would. But he sent it to his cousin, who sent it to another friend. From that person, I think, the (Meitei radical group) Arambai Tenggol came to know about this. They came to the village sometime in June and there was a meeting with the village authorities and all the common people. All of us handed our phones over to the Arambai Tenggol people, who checked them and it was deleted from his (Jiban’s) device then.”

The police have also arrested 19-year-old Yumlembam Nungsithou, Jiban’s cousin who he had sent the video to. Both are sons of farmers.The incident is being probed by CBI and there are witnesses in the village which have come as support for the accused.

There is a stir in the state around the arrests happening around the viral video. Meanwhile, the villagers do believe that there were many more not only from that village but nearby villages who were part of the mob.