Several Civil Society Organisations of Manipur have strongly condemned the alleged kidnapping, confinement, threat to rape, murder threat, threat to “Keina Katpa” and forced elopement of 27-year-old Anamika Ahongshangbam, PhD scholar of JNU, against her will with one 35-year-old Rajkumar Master Meitei, son of RK Sanajaoba of Mayang Imphal Konchak Mayai Leikai, Imphal West.
Addressing mediapersons, Human Rights Alert executive director Babloo Loitongbam said that Anamika, daughter of Ahongshangbam Mubi of Singjamei, was invited by Rajkumar Master on December 12, 2021, on the pretext of having lunch at Lilong. She accepted the invitation as they were well acquainted. Instead, he took her to his aunty’s house at Mayang Imphal, near his house and right after lunch, to her utter surprise and without any prior indications, Master’s family coaxed her to marry him. She outrightly rejected the proposal. But the family insisted and persuaded her to accept the proposal. As the matter escalated, she tried to leave the house but they instead snatched her phone and locked her in the house, Babloo stated.
Thereafter, on the instigation of other members of the family, including Master, they forcefully silenced her, assaulted her and even subjected her to threats of murder and rape, the HRA director told the press.
Anamika protested the wrongful confinement, which caught the attention of the neighborhood. But to her utter surprise, none of them came to her rescue and trivialized the matter as a family scuffle.
Even as she vehemently protested, the family and folks of the locality threatened her that they will perform the “Keina Katpa” ritual and publicly humiliate her. Fortunately, she survived the ordeal and managed to reach home the next day. She immediately filed a police complaint at Singjamei Police Station and the investigation is going on, Babloo said. In connection with the incident, Anamika approach civil society organisations and asked support for getting justice.
The CSOs namely AMKIL, EEVFAM, Girl-Up Manipur, Mingsel Foundation, HRA, Women in government network (WING) held a meeting on Sunday and resolved to lodge a complaint before the State Women Commission for archiving patriarchal traditions of expecting women to submit to the pressure of so-called “social norms” should be consigned to the flames of history. Further, they resolved to conduct a public meeting.
Babloo said that as a civil society organisation concerned with gender justice, CSOs are shocked to notice the insensitivity of the family members and local community to the plight of Anamika when she protested the forced kidnapping. CSOs strongly denounced the normalisation of marriage through abduction and systemic violence against women, he added.
