The Manipur Police on Wednesday filed a case in connection with an alleged gangrape of a 37-year-old woman in the Churachandpur district in May.

The woman alleged in her complaint that she had been raped by “five-six Kuki miscreants”. The crime allegedly took place on May 3, the day when ethnic clashes between the Kuki and the majority Meitei communities broke out in the state. Since then, at least 187 people have been killed and nearly 60,000 forced to flee their homes.

Bishnupur Superintendent of Police N Herojit Meetei confirmed to Scroll that on Wednesday, a zero FIR was registered at a police station in the district. The case was then transferred to the Churachandpur police station, he said.

A zero FIR is a case that can be filed at any police station, irrespective of the place where the alleged crime took place. After such a case is filed, the police station that registers the zero FIR has to forward it to the station that has jurisdiction over the matter.

The case has been registered under Sections 376D (gangrape), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), and 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.

The woman was sent for a medical examination at the Department of Forensic Science and Toxicology at the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences at Imphal, according to the Hindustan Times.

In her complaint, the woman alleged that on May 3, people started running for their lives after a group of Kuki miscreants set her home and those of her neighbours on fire.

“I carried my niece on my back and also held my two sons and started running from the spot along with my sister-in-law,” the complaint read. “She was also carrying a baby on her back and running ahead of me. Then I stumbled and fell down on the road and [was] unable to get up.”

The complainant said that her sister-in-law then came back towards her, and, on her insistence, picked up her niece and ran away with her two sons. She alleged that subsequently, the miscreants caught hold of her and assaulted her.

The woman said she did not disclose the incident initially to protect her family’s dignity and save them from being socially ostracised. “The delay in filing this complaint is due to social stigma,” she told the police.

The woman said that after she was assaulted, she went to the Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, but returned without seeing a doctor. “I was so depressed and annoyed that I even wanted to end myself,” she said in the complaint.

Later, she decided to go to the police in order to ensure punishment for the men who carried out the “ghastly crime”, the woman said.

The case comes to light two weeks after a video of women being sexually assaulted near the B Phainom village in the Kangpokpi district was shared widely on social media. The assault took place on May 4, a day after clashes first erupted between the Meitei and Kuki communities.

One of the women in the video was “brutally gang-raped”, according to a police complaint.

A case of murder, abduction and gangrape was filed against “unknown armed miscreants” on May 18. However, the police only made the first arrest in the case two months later after the video sparked outrage on July 19.

Seven persons have now been arrested in the case.