Chief Justice of India D. Y. Chandrachud on September 22 opted to wait a “little bit” before seeking a status report from Dattatray Padsalgikar, former Maharashtra Director General of Police, who was appointed by the Supreme Court to supervise the CBI probe into 11 cases of crimes committed against women and children in the Manipur ethnic violence.
The apex court appointed Mr. Padsalgikar on August 7 to “supervise the investigation by the CBI into the FIRs transferred to it and the investigation by the investigative machinery of the State into the remaining FIRs”.
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Other than the 11 FIRs with the CBI, there are more than 6,500 FIRs, registered between May and July, being investigated by the Manipur Police. The top court had asked Mr. Padsalgikar to supervise the State investigations also.
“There is no update so far about the CBI investigation into the 11 FIRs so far,” senior advocate Indira Jaising pointed out to the court.
Chief Justice Chandrachud said Mr. Padsalgikar had already visited Manipur. “He is a seasoned officer. He has served in the North East too… Allow a little bit of time for the officer to take charge and then we will ask him to give a status report,” the Chief Justice told Ms. Jaising.
Attorney General of India R. Venkataramani advised caution, saying “a little flame may lead to a flare-up”.
Meanwhile, the Manipur government, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, handed over to the court a confidential status report on the stolen or missing weapons and ammunition used in the violence. The court had agreed to accept the report confidentially as the issue regarding the weapons was “extremely sensitive”. The Manipur government had argued against the information becoming a source of panic.
The court said it would go through the report and scheduled the next hearing on September 25.
During the previous hearing, the Chief Justice had said the court was seeking information about the illegal weapons and their recovery to “deal objectively with the fact that the State has to take action, irrespective of the source where these illegal arms are situated”.
The court had made it clear that its role was to ensure accountability in case of any wrongdoing.
“We are not concerned with the source of the wrongdoing. We are concerned with the point that there has to be accountability for wrongdoing. We are not concerned with the source of human suffering. Irrespective of the source of human suffering, everybody has to be dealt with equally… Investigation of crimes, various aspects of human suffering, recovery of arms from all sources, providing compensation… all of this has to take place across the board, irrespective of the persons involved. We are not blaming either side,” Chief Justice Chandrachud had observed in the earlier hearing.
Meanwhile, advocate Vrina Grover, appearing for one of the petitioners, pointed out that there was still no information about the bodies of two women who were gangraped and killed in Manipur on May 4.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, for Manipur, said the court-appointed Justice Gita Mittal Committee had already taken cognisance of the issue and the State was “taking steps” in this regard.
