Manipur violence: CBI moves Supreme Court to cancel bail of men accused of gangrape, parading women naked

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has moved petitions before the Supreme Court challenging the grant of bail to two men accused of committing gang-rape and being part of the mob that paraded two women naked amid the 2023 ethnic clashes in Manipur..A Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan and Justice N Kotiswar Singh on Tuesday issued notice and sought the response of the two men out on bail, namely Arun Khundongbam @ Nanao and Nameirakpam Kiran Meitei..The CBI's counsel told the Court that the case involved extremely serious allegations.“The accused had paraded woman naked. This is a gross case. The women were gangraped and then paraded,” the agency submitted while seeking cancellation of bail..Advocate Nizam Pasha, appearing for the victims, also requested the Court to ensure that legal aid counsel are appointed for them if required. The Bench said that the issue of providing such legal aid to the victims must be addressed immediately.“Regarding issue of appointment of legal aid counsels for the victim, let that be complied with forthwith,” the Court directed..The case relates to the widely reported incident during the 2023 Manipur violence in which two women from the Kuki-Zo community were stripped and paraded naked by a mob. The video of the assault surfaced online months later, triggering nationwide outrage and prompting the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognisance of the incident.The violence in Manipur erupted in May 2023 following tensions between the Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities, after a now-withdrawn Manipur High Court directive for the State to consider including the Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe list..Following the intervention of the Supreme Court, the CBI took over the investigation into several cases linked to the violence, including the case relating to the assault on the two women.In August 2023, the top court had directed that trials in CBI-probed cases arising from the Manipur violence be conducted in Assam to ensure a fair trial environment. Meanwhile, two of the men accused of being part of the mob that assaulted the two women secured bail from the Gauhati High Court in September 2025. The High Court noted that there was significant delay in the trial, largely on account of lapses by the CBI (prosecution), and that the accused cannot be indefinitely jailed without a trial. It, therefore, granted them bail.The trial in these cases has now begin. In January this year, a special court in Assam's Guwahati framed criminal charges against six men, including the two out on bail, for the incident where the two women were paraded naked and sexually assaulted. .[Read Live Coverage]