The Supreme Court on July 31 said it needed a complete break-up of the “approximately 6,000 First Information Reports [FIRs]“ the Manipur government claimed to have registered during the ethnic clashes in the State, including cases of murder, rape, arson, crimes against women, burning of villages, homes and places of worship.
The court listed the case for August 1 at 2 p.m..
A three-judge Bench headed by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud was surprised to find the Centre and the State groping for facts about crimes which are “public knowledge reported widely in the national media”.
The court was shocked to know that the Manipur police took 14 whole days to register even a ‘Zero FIR’ (an FIR that can be filed in any police station) on the sexual assault and gangrape of two women in Thoubal district on May 4. The case was transferred to the police station concerned on June 21. The video of the “horrific” visuals of the sexual violence went viral on July 19. The Supreme Court took suo motu cognisance of the video on July 20. The arrests, seven in number, were made only after the apex court took judicial note.
“What were the police doing from May 4 to May 18? The incident came to light involving three women paraded naked in the presence of a mob. At least, two of them were raped. What were the police doing for 14 days?” Chief Justice Chandrachud asked Attorney General R. Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre and the Manipur government.
Oppose CBI probe
The two women, represented by senior advocate Kapil Sibal, have approached the apex court, objecting to the Centre and the State’s decision to transfer the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Mr. Siibal alleged “collaboration” between the State police and the mob. He said the police, instead of taking the women away from the mob, took them towards the crowd and abandoned them to their fate. He submitted that one of the women had lost her father and brother to the mob’s violence. There was still no information about their bodies.
The court proposed appointing its own special investigation team. “There are statements made here that people were handed over by the police to the mob. Besides, you [Centre and State] do not want the local police to investigate,” the court reasoned.
It suggested constituting a separate high-powered committee of neutral persons. “There is a great need in Manipur to administer a healing touch; to restore a sense of faith in the administration because the violence is continuing unabated. The highest court has a deep concern and will send such officers and judges, who are not politically aligned, to give us a dispassionate view of what is happening on the ground in Manipur… We have to rebuild lives in Manipur,” the Chief Justice said.
Chief Justice Chandrachud said the May 4 incident was not an isolated one. “This is apparent from the Home Secretary’s affidavit. As much as we want to give justice to the two women, we also want to put in place a mechanism by which justice is available to all other women. We have to put in a mechanism to ensure complaints are filed, FIRs are lodged… The process of justice should go to the victims’ doorsteps,” the Chief Justice observed.
Mr. Mehta said the government was “serious” and had “nothing to hide”. He said the government was open to the Supreme Court monitoring the investigation. ”There is nothing greater than the Supreme Court monitoring,” the law officer said.
“There are reasons why the case investigation was transferred to the CBI, so that it is a neutral investigation… After the video went viral, people were arrested in 24 hours,” he submitted. He explained the 14-day delay in registering the Zero FIR, saying “May 18 was the day when the incident was brought to our notice”.
But the court asked whether the Thoubal incident was a “standalone” instance of perpetration of violence on women in Manipur during the clashes.
“Let us say for example if there are 1,000 of them, will the CBI be able to cope? How many such FIRs are there really? Here we are dealing with systemic acts of violence committed in the course of communal and sectarian strife,” the court told the government.
The Bench said it had to first see a “breakdown” of the 6,000 FIRs the government was said to have registered.
“What is the bifurcation of the 6,000 FIRs? How many crimes against women; how many involve serious offences like murder, bodily harm to women, burning of villages, homes, places of worship. What is the breakdown of these FIRs?” the Chief Justice asked.
The court sought details of the zero FIRs filed by the police, the action taken on them and in how many cases the Magistrates had ordered investigation under Section 156(3) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The court also asked the government to provide details of any relief package it proposed to offer the victims.
