‘She never fully recovered’: Manipur gangrape victim dies waiting for justice

A victim of a gangrape during the 2023 ethnic conflict in Manipur, died on January 10 due to a prolonged illness linked to her injuries. 

Kim*, who was 20, passed away in Singhat, Manipur, never having fully recovered from the trauma inflicted during her abduction and sexual assault nearly three years ago.

Her case was first highlighted in a complaint to the National Commission for Women (NCW) by two women and a US-based association representing the hill tribes of Manipur – the North American Manipur Tribal Association. 

The June 12, 2023 complaint listed six incidents of sexual violence against Kuki-Zo tribal women, including the account of the then-18-year-old.

The NCW received it 38 days before the country was jolted by the viral video of a mob parading and assaulting two naked Kuki women, one of whom was also a subject of that June 12 complaint. 

While that video eventually forced the national media to look at the horrors unfolding in Manipur, Kim suffered in the shadows.

In July 2023, she gave her statement to the Manipur Police, a Zero FIR was filed and her case was transferred to the CBI on July 22, 2023. But more than two years after the horrific incident, no arrests have been made. 

‘She lived in constant fear’

Speaking to Newslaundry, her mother, Lhingnei Haokip, 48, said that because of her physical injuries, Kim also developed breathing problems. 

“My daughter was a very lively and outgoing girl before she was subjected to this horrifying brutality. She wasn’t really interested in academics, but she worked at a beauty parlour in Imphal with one of our relatives. She had many friends and often hung out with them. My daughter was always smiling and full of life, but after the incident, she lost her smile,” said Lhingnei.

Beyond the physical injuries, Lhingnei recalled how the traumatic incident shattered Kim’s mental health. “My daughter became so traumatised that she confined herself to one room. She completely stopped interacting with everyone. She stopped going out and stopped talking to her friends. Doctors used to visit twice a week for trauma therapy sessions, but my daughter could not recover. I was the only person she spoke to. She didn't leave my side even when we stepped out for 15 minutes,” she recalled.

“For the last two years, she lived in constant fear. 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. She had nightmares and gradually developed insomnia. She could not sleep out of fear, and because of all this, her health kept deteriorating,” she added. 

Last month, during Christmas, Lhingnei and her daughter went to her mother’s place in Singhat. Her mother was also unwell, so she thought it would be a good idea for them to visit her. 

“On January 8, my daughter started vomiting and developed diarrhoea. We consulted a doctor and gave her medicines, but within a day, she passed away. It was the trauma and the injuries inflicted on her that affected her health. Over the last two years, she developed a prolonged illness because of what was done to her,” she said. 

According to medical records accessed by Newslaundry, Kim was gangraped and suffered severe injuries. As a result of her injuries, she underwent multiple procedures, most recently a surgery in Guwahati on October 25, 2025. These surgeries took a toll on her life.

What happened on that day?

Records, including the FIR and a statement Kim gave at the Kangpokpi Police Station on July 21, 2023, reveal that four men in plain clothes abducted her on the evening of May 15, 2023. She was taken from the New Checkon locality in Imphal, near an ATM booth by Seikam School, and forced into a purple Maruti Swift. 

She was then taken to the Wangkhei Ayanpali area, where she was allegedly assaulted by Meira Paibis (members of a Meitei women’s civil society group) and several local men.

Following this, four men with guns wearing black shirts with a logo on their backs (allegedly members of the controversial Meitei outfit Arambai Tenggol) took her in a white Bolero SUV to a spot on a hilltop, where she was gangraped by three of them. While the men were arguing among themselves about whether to kill her, one of them attempted to turn the vehicle around and accidentally hit her, causing her to fall off the hilltop.

After she fell, she was rescued by an auto-rickshaw driver who was transporting vegetables. He took her to the Bishnupur police station. Upon reaching the police station, when she heard that the police personnel who would drop her home were Meitei, she begged the rickshaw driver to take her home in the New Lambulane area of Imphal. She was eventually admitted to a hospital in Kangpokpi and later shifted to a hospital in Kohima, Nagaland, for further treatment.

‘Punish those who did this to her’

For the family, the state’s response has been defined by a financial compensation of Rs 10 lakh on one hand, but an abject lack of legal accountability on the other. 

Shougrakpam Chandrakumar Singh, the officer-in-charge of Porompat Police Station in Imphal East district, told Newslaundry, “The case came to our police station based on a zero FIR, but it was transferred to the CBI immediately. We don’t know what action the CBI has taken.”

Newslaundry reached out to the CBI branch in Imphal, but the staff there refused to provide any information. We also reached out to the office of DIG Lovely Katiyar in Guwahati, one of the officers probing the violence in Manipur. However, she was not available for comment.

Victor Chongtham, a Manipur-based lawyer handling cases related to the ethnic violence, told us, “The CBI have not arrested anyone in this rape case. They have arrested the accused in the naked parade case and the arms looting case, but no one has been arrested in this particular rape case. The state has just filed many zero FIRs, but nothing is happening in these cases. We don't have much hope from CBI or any other agencies probing the violence in Manipur.”

The Kuki-Zo community, however, has rallied around Kim and her family. Earlier on January 17, a candlelight vigil was held in Churachandpur in her remembrance. 

Meanwhile, in the absence of arrests and any legal accountability, Lhingnei is left only with her daughter's silence and a singular demand.

“I have only one wish left in life – to see the people who did this to her punished. I want to know who those men were,” she said. “I am going to miss my daughter.”

*Name changed of the victim

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