Women activists from Wangjing in Thoubal district have taken strong exception to the detention of a rape victim in police custody and said they will launch agitations if she is not set free and the accused tried under the law of the land.
Talking to journalists here on Sunday, the activists said the 18-year-old housewife was raped on the night of December 27, when her mason-husband was away in Imphal, and on her complaint, the police arrested Somorjit Soibam. But both the victim and the accused were together taken to court, where no family member was allowed inside. Moreover, Soibam and the traumatised victim were forced to sit face to face while they made their statements.
To top it all, the activists alleged, the police arrested the housewife on December 29, saying they must record her statement. She was produced in the court of the chief judicial magistrate, Thoubal, which ordered her detention for five days in police custody.
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All these “are unheard of anywhere in the country,” said the activists.