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The Supreme Court on Tuesday flagged a ‘long delay in registration of FIRs’ in connection with the Manipur violence case. A Bench led by CJI Chandrachud noted that there must have been an “absolute breakdown of machinery” if lawmakers were unable to register FIR or take action for weeks after the incident.
“Except in one or two cases, it seems that there have been no arrests at all…the investigation is so lethargic. FIRs are registered after so long, arrests not made, statements not recorded. 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,” LiveLaw quoted the Chief Justice as saying.
Appearing for the government Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the SC that 6532 FIRs have been registered with respect to the Manipur violence.
“It’s clear that for the 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,” the apex court noted.
Justice Chandrachud said the updates shared with the court indicated that there was “no law from the beginning of May till the end of July” in the northeastern state. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta meanwhile assured the court that the case had been handed over to the CBI at the earliest possible moment.
“What about the balance? Say about 50 go to CBI, what about the 5500 then? State police is incapable of investigating. There is no law and order left,” the CJI countered.
Mehta meanwhile informed the court that an affidavit had already been filed in the viral video case. According to Mehta, the State police’s ‘zero’ FIR was lodged on May 5 and the police have already arrested seven people including a juvenile. The case pertains to a viral video from the violence-hit state that had shown tribal women being sexually assaulted and paraded naked.
“There needs to be a mechanism to bifurcate these 6500 FIRs. Because the CBI cannot be burdened with all 6500 otherwise it’ll result in breakdown of CBI mechanism also,” the CJI added.
Earlier on Tuesday the apex court had stopped the Central Bureau of Investigation to press pause on recording the statement of victims. The instructions came after an advocate appearing for the Kuki side noted that the probe agency was on its way to record the statement of the tribal women victims in the Manipur viral video case at noon today.
At least 150 people have been killed and several hundred injured since ethnic violence broke out in the state on May 3 when a ‘Tribal Solidarity March’ was organised in the hill districts to protest against the majority Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe status.
This is a developing story. Additional details will be included shortly.
(With inputs from agencies)
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Updated: 01 Aug 2023, 03:16 PM IST
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