By PC Bureau
January 19, 2026: The handwritten First Information Report left behind by Nengtinlhing Haokip—an 18-year-old Kuki-Zo woman abducted, gang-raped and nearly killed during Manipur’s ethnic violence—stands today as a searing indictment of investigative failure. More than two years after she documented, in meticulous detail, the crimes committed against her, and days after she succumbed to trauma-related complications on January 10, 2026, not a single arrest has been made by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which took over the case amid assurances of impartial justice.
Haokip’s FIR, registered as FIR No. 09(07)/2023 KPI-PS at Kangpokpi Police Station on July 21, 2023, is not vague, fragmentary, or speculative. It is a precise, chronological account of abduction, ethnic targeting, sexual violence by multiple perpetrators, repeated attempts to murder her, and explicit threats meant to ensure her silence. The complaint was handwritten by the survivor herself, recounting events that began on May 15, 2023, when Manipur was already engulfed in Meitei-Kuki violence that erupted on May 3.
The FIR was later transferred to Porompat Police Station and handed over to the CBI, invoking grave offences under the Indian Penal Code—including gang rape and attempt to murder—as well as provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989. Yet, despite the specificity of the survivor’s testimony—names of places, time of assault, descriptions of vehicles, the age profile of the assailants, the weapons used, the sequence of movements, and the victim’s escape—investigators have failed to identify or arrest even one accused.
What Haokip recorded was not merely a statement of suffering; it was a detailed map of a crime scene spread across Imphal and its outskirts.
What the victim told the police: her FIR in full
In her handwritten complaint addressed to the Officer-in-Charge of Kangpokpi Police Station, Nengtinlhing Haokip narrated her ordeal in her own words, pleading for action while documenting every stage of the violence inflicted on her:
“Sir,
With due respect, I would like to lay down a few lines before you for your kind consideration and necessary action.
That on 15th May (Monday) 2023 at around 5.00 pm near Baby Seikam School near New Checkon ATM booth, four men wearing plain clothes caught me and took me in purple coloured Maruti Swift to Wangkhei Ayangpalli and dragged me out and started beating and slapping me. Then they called meira paibis and several local men who took turns in slapping and punching me.
Then I heard one of the ladies saying that we must call ‘Arambai Tengol’. Carrying guns. Two of these men looked like they were mid 30s and rest two of them looked like they were in their 50’s. One of the ladies from the mob gave clear instructions to these 4 men to kill me.
Then, these 4 men shoved me in a white Bolero and then we drove off from that place. They asked me whether I will remember their face and when I said no, they would slap me and couple of times also hit me with butt of their guns.
Then we reached a place which was slightly on a hill top where they decided to kill me. I heard these men discussing that killing me here would not be a good idea as one of them said that ‘if we shoot her here then they would attract police from nearby police station’. Then one of them said that ‘Kuki people rape Meitei women, kill them and put them naked in a plastic bag; but don’t worry we will not go to such an extent after killing you’.
I looked around and fell on the feet of one of these men who looked the eldest and started begging for my life. I even promised them that I will never return to Imphal; just let me go; I want to meet my parents.
Then they put me in car again and they drove around for a while, they stopped the car again in hilly top area. They dragged me out of the car and starting physically assaulting me by kicking, slapping, punching etc. One of the blows on my face with the butt of the gun was so hard that I blacked out for a while.
My eyes opened when I felt drizzle of rain on my face. Upon gaining consciousness they started slapping me again and said that they will let me go if I let them have sex with me. Then they made me stand up and started assaulting me again till I fell down.
Then 3 of these 4 men took turns in raping me. One of them even asked whether they should try double penetration and they asked me my age. When I told them that I am 18 years old, one of the elder men said that she is too young for that. Thereafter they took turns and raped me one by one. I also heard one of them saying that I will not have sex with anyone other than my wife.
By this time my ears, face and head were bleeding really bad to the extent that my clothes and face were drenched in blood.
Then there was this argument between these 3 men who raped me and the one who did not. The man who did not rape me was adamant that I should be killed. But other three men wanted to let me go. I again started crying and begged for mercy, but they said that if we let you go then you will go to police or file FIR but we will find you and kill you.
While they were arguing on whether to let me go or kill me; one of them was trying to turn the car around and by accident it hit me and I fell off the creek from that hilltop.
When I reached the bottom, I landed on some road. I heard and saw a rickshaw and tried to stop the auto rickshaw. Upon seeing me in that condition; drenched and tried vegetables and he hid me under the pile of vegetables.
The auto rickshaw driver was carrying vegetables to Bishenpur Police Station. Upon hearing them that the police who will drop me home are from Meitei community, I started begging the driver that he must drop me home i.e. New Lambulane area without the police as I don’t trust them.
Thereafter, on 16th of May at around 4.30 am I left Imphal and came to Sapormeina. I went to Kangpokpi District Hospital for treatment but they referred me to Kohima Hospital as my condition was critical.
I therefore request you to kindly take necessary action in this regard for which I shall remain grateful to you.”
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A testimony ignored
The FIR records abduction by armed ethnic vigilantes, involvement of women in inciting the violence, references to militant groups, repeated beatings with gun butts, gang rape by three men, discussions about killing the victim, and an attempted murder that failed only due to internal disagreement among the assailants. It documents the survivor’s escape while bleeding, her concealment under vegetables in an autorickshaw, her fear of the police, and her eventual evacuation for emergency medical care.
Legal experts and human rights defenders have described the case as among the gravest instances of conflict-related sexual violence in recent Indian history. Haokip’s mother, Lhingnei Haokip, has said her daughter never recovered, suffering breathing problems, insomnia and profound psychological distress. “She was lively before. After that, she lived in silence and said she did not want to live,” she told mourners during vigils.
Yet, despite vehicle descriptions—a purple Maruti Swift and a white Bolero—clear locations, timelines, and the survivor’s own words, the investigation has stalled.
Questions the CBI has not answered
Kuki-Zo organisations, including the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) and the Committee on Tribal Unity (CoTU), have accused the CBI of inertia and selective urgency. “This FIR left nothing to imagination,” a CoTU spokesperson said. “If this does not lead to arrests, what will?”
Human rights groups have echoed the criticism, arguing that the failure to act has transformed Haokip’s death into a symbol of impunity. “Justice delayed here was justice denied,” said a Kuki women’s rights activist. “The survivor did everything the law asked of her. The system did nothing.”
As vigils continue across Manipur’s hill districts, Nengtinlhing Haokip’s FIR remains not just a record of atrocity, but a document of institutional failure—one that now indicts the very agency tasked with delivering justice.
