The pretext of Dimapur Lynching incident were laid down on February 23 and 24. According to the complaint filed by the victim, an Assamese man named Syed Farid Khan allegedly raped her in the forest area on Feb 23 and in hotel on Feb 24. A Police complaint was filed on February 24 and the accused was arrested on February 25.
The Rape Survivor allaged that the accused gave her Rs 5000 to stay quiet
In an Interview, the rape victim claimed that she was given Rs. 5000 by the accused to remain silent about the incident. She said that the man was known to her as her neighbor and his wife belonged to the same village as her. She also said that she was lured into a car by a friend, who then left. The man then intoxicated her and raped her several times. She later reported it to the police and handed over the money.
However, the family of the accused claimed that he was framed. One of his brothers, who also lived in Dimapur and ran a business said the woman who had filed the case was close the accused’s family and was well-acquainted with his wife. The woman had invited Farid to a hotel with some other persons on 23 February. She forced him to drink and demanded Rs. 200,000 from him. On being refused, she filed a case the next day.
On March 5, a mob of around 8000 people stormed into Dimapur Central Jail and dragged out the rape accused and paraded him naked, pelted him with stones and beat him leading to his death. Later his body was displayed from the clock tower’s railings (7km away). According to sources, the mob was led by a group of a few hundred school and college girls in uniforms. In the beginning their attempt was repealed by security forces present in jail, but later they turned out into huge numbers. There some skirmishes with the Police with the mob leading to the death of 1 member of the mob, while 52 Policemen got injured. 10 Police vehicles were also burnt.
The Identity of the rape accused was disputed initially. Later it was revealed to be Syed Farid Khan, a 35 year-old used car businessman hailing from Karimganj district of Assam. He was living in Nagaland for 8 years. He was married to a Nagaland woman for 4 years and had a three year-old daughter.
After this incident, there was severe outrage, protests in Nagaland, Assam and various other parts of the country, both in favor and against the incident. In Assam, All Assam Minority Students’ Union burnt an effigy of the Nagaland government in Nagaon, accusing the government of discriminating against minorities. Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi also condemned the attack.
The Nagaland Government suspended Dimapur Deputy Police Commissioner Wezope Kenye, Superintendent of Police Meren Jamir and Dimapur Central Jail Chief on 6 March. There were reports of inter-state tensions between Nagaland ad Assam and a curfew was imposed in Dimapur on March 6. On March 7, Internet was blocked in Nagaland for 48 hours. SMS and MMS services were also blocked.
Nagaland Government has appointed a judicial inquiry commission headed by Veprasa Nyekha, a retired district and sessions judge. Investigations of CCTV Footage from the hotel have shown the girl entering and leaving the room with the accused. Some reports say that the medical examination has confirmed rape of the girl by the accused. By 9 March, over 40 people were arrested in connection of the lynching.
Disclaimer: The above analysis has been compiled based on the available information from various sources such as news bulletins, interviews at the time of publication (mentioned on the top). Since it is an on-going event, facts may change with time and new information might contradict old ones. We cannot guarantee 100% accuracy under such circumstances. However we have tried our best to present a holistic view of the incident.