- Thursday, February 27, 2025
In 2020, the Nongpok Sekmai police station in Thoubal district of the north-eastern state was ranked the ‘best in the country’.
By: Shubham Ghosh
A DETAILED visual probe by the Open-Source Intelligence Team of India Today has claimed that the incident of parading and sexually assaulting two naked women in the north-eastern Indian state of Manipur took place approximately a kilometre away from what has been ranked by the government as the best police station.
The investigation precisely points at the location where the incident was filmed and the video of the horrific incident went viral on social media, causing a nation-wide outrage. The analysis relied on open-source satellite images of the southern peaks to pinpoint the exact place of the incident.
Every year, the Indian government picks best-performing police stations from across the nation on the basis of many performance indicators. As per a statement by the home ministry, some of the criteria for selecting them are the performance of the law-keepers in cases related to crime against women and the weaker sections.
In 2020, the police station near which the crime took place — Nongpok Sekmai — in Thoubal district was ranked the ‘best in the country’.
In a tweet, Manipur’s embattled chief minister N Biren Singh had said then, “Congratulations to Nongpok Sekmai PS, Thoubal District on being conferred the #BestPoliceStationAward2020 of the country by Union Home Ministry. The award is in recognition of the professionalism, hard work, dedication and community-oriented policing by the #Manipur Police.”
However, after the video surfaced on Wednesday (19), the said station has come under the scanner following the emergence of the disturbing video. The incident reportedly took place on May 4, a day after deadly ethnic clashes started in the state between the Meitei and Kuki communities over the demand of the Scheduled Tribe status.
A massive outrage was witnessed all over India after the video came out, forcing even prime minister Narendra Modi to speak out. He said stern action would be taken against the culprits. Some arrests were also made by the state government but yet the condemnation was high as the opposition claimed that the prime minister spoke too little too late.
The Supreme Court of India also reacted to the incident with Chief Justice DY Chandrachud asking the government to take action and warned of stepping in if the authorities failed.
The victims experienced sexual assault before being released by the mob. One of them was also allegedly gang-raped. The issue, including Manipur’s endless violence, also dominated the beginning of the monsoon session of the Indian parliament on Thursday (20).
