Supreme Court tells CBI to file status report within two weeks over probe in Manipur violence cases

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the CBI, which is probing 11 FIRs related to the 2023 Manipur ethnic violence cases, to submit a status report within two weeks.

A bench of Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi also asked the Union and Manipur governments to honour the recommendations of the court-appointed Justice Gita Mittal committee on rehabilitation and welfare of the victims of the ethnic violence in the state, saying, "committee is a neutral umpire".

The tenure of the committee has been extended till July 31.

Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves for a tribal body forum of the Manipur Kuki tribals, said that two committees had been appointed -- one for criminal justice and the other for rehabilitation – and 27 reports have been filed in this court. But not a single copy has been made available to it, he said.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta for the Centre, contended the committee itself has reported to the court that these organisations were creating hindrance and they were instigating people to continue violence.

Gonsalves, however, asserted this is not true and there was a dispute over the burial of people.

The bench, however, said the committee is a neutral umpire and it comprises former judges.

Gonsalves claimed that the rehabilitation and the prosecution were very low. He sought a copy of the reports to provide their inputs.

The bench raised an apprehension regarding the sensitive content in the reports. Gonsalves said, the court may decide out of 27 reports, whatever is required to be shared with them.

Gonsalves sought to raise the issue of rehabilitation.

"Don't want to see any examples. Please do not argue in open court. These things are reported," the bench said, adding, whatever the committee has recommended the Centre and state should make an endeavour to immediately comply with those recommendations.

The bench also broached the idea that instead of the apex court, the jurisdictional Manipur High Court, which has a new chief justice, or the Gauhati High Court or both monitor the trials and related developments in the violence cases.

The court-appointed committee comprising Justice Mittal, the former chief justice of the Jammu and Kashmir, and Justices Shalini P Joshi, a former judge of the Bombay High Court, and Asha Menon, an ex-judge of the Delhi High Court, have so far submitted several reports on measures to rehabilitate the victims.

Over 200 people have been killed, several hundred injured and thousands displaced since ethnic violence first broke out in Manipur on May 3, 2023, when a 'Tribal Solidarity March' was organised in the hill districts to protest against the High Court's order on considering the demand for majority Meitei community for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status.

Senior advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for one of the woman victims who died recently, submitted that she should be substituted by her mother. She alleged the CBI did not even inform her that a charge sheet in her rape case was filed. She said the Kuki woman died last month from an illness allegedly linked to the trauma she suffered after being gang-raped.

''I have accessed the trial court report. The main accused are not appearing. The CBI is not present. The casualness with which it is happening is shocking,'' she alleged. Mehta replied that nobody can oppose what Grover is saying and the victim's rights cannot be affected.

The bench said let the CBI file a status report, and suggested that the monitoring part could be entrusted to the Manipur High Court's Chief Justice.

''We can ask the Chief Justices of Manipur and Gauhati High Courts to coordinate and see how victims' statements need to be handled and how they can be recorded," the bench said.