Manipur Extra Judicial Killings: SC Orders CBI To Constitute SIT [Read Judgment]

In a landmark Judgment, Supreme Court of India on Friday directed the CBI to constitute a Special Investigation Team and to investigate the alleged extra judicial killings in Manipur.

The Bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta held as follows;

"we are of opinion that it would be appropriate if the Central Bureau of Investigation (or the CBI) is required to look into these fake encounters or use of excessive or retaliatory force. Accordingly, the Director of the CBI is directed to nominate a group of five officers to go through the records of the cases mentioned in the three tables given above, lodge necessary FIRs and to complete the investigations into the same by 31st December, 2017 and prepare charge sheets, wherever necessary. The entire groundwork has already been done either by the Commissions of Inquiry or by a Judicial Inquiry or by the Gauhati or Manipur High Court or by the NHRC. We leave it to the Special Investigating Team to utilize the material already gathered, in accordance with law. We expect the State of Manipur to extend full cooperation and assistance to the Special Investigating Team. We also expect the Union of India to render full assistance to the Special Investigating Team to complete the investigation at the earliest without any unnecessary hindrances or obstacles. The Director of the CBI will nominate the team and inform us of its composition within two weeks"

Directions

The Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation will nominate a team and inform us of its composition within two weeks, as also any other requirement. List these cases immediately after three weeks for compliance.

The petitions should also be listed positively in the second week of January, 2018 to ensure compliance with our directions for investigation by Central Bureau of Investigation.  

 The petitioners claimed to have compiled 1528 alleged extra-judicial executions carried out by the police and security forces in Manipur. It is alleged that a majority of them have been carried out in cold blood while the victims were in custody and allegedly after torturing them. Petitioners alleged that not a single First Information Report has been registered by the Manipur police against the police or the security forces even though several complaints have been made in respect of the alleged extra-judicial executions. As a result of the failure of the Manipur police to register an FIR not a single investigation or prosecution has commenced and the cries of anguish of the families of the victims have fallen on deaf ears. The petitioners alleged that the victims of the extra-judicial executions include innocent persons with no criminal record whatsoever but they are later on conveniently labeled as militants.