New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday it would appoint a committee of three former High Court judges to look into the investigation, relief and remedial measures, compensation and rehabilitation in Manipur, which has been reeling under ethnic violence for three months. The top court was hearing a clutch of petitions related to the Manipur violence, including the case pertaining to two tribal women being paraded naked in May.
State DGP Rajiv Singh was also present in the court after the bench sought his presence and ordered the same during the last hearing.
Last week on Tuesday, the Supreme Court observed that the state police has not been in charge of the law & order situation in Manipur. CJI DY Chandrachud said: “It’s clear that for the last two months, the state police was not in charge. They may have made performative arrests, but they were not in charge. Either they were incapable of doing it or uninterested.”
“(Manipur) State police is incapable of investigation. They have lost control. There is absolutely no law and order,” the CJI further said.
He noted that there had been a long delay in the registration of FIRs in the Manipur ethnic violence cases. Referring to an incident of a woman being dragged out of a car and her son being lynched in Manipur on May 4, the apex court said the FIR was registered after a delay of three days on July 7.
According to Live Law, CJI DY Chandrachud said: “It appears except in case of 1 or 2 FIRs, there have been no arrests at all. Investigations are too lethargic, FIRs are being registered after two months, and statements are not being recorded.” Justice Pardiwala asked the government of Manipur: “The son was burned in this incident. Why was Section 302 not added to this FIR?”
Appearing for the Manipur government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the CCTV footage was auto-deleted. “This is not a justification, but the situation on the ground was bad,” to which CJI Chandrachud said: “That means that the situation was so bad for two months that it was not conducive for FIRs. There was no law, you couldn’t even register an FIR, police couldn’t arrest.”
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