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Manipur Healing-Touch, SC Proposed All-Women Judges Committee for Investigation and Rehabilitation

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Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Aug 7: In a view to provide a healing touch to the strife-torn Manipur state, the Supreme Court on Monday proposed an all-women committee of three former high court judges to look after both investigation and rehabilitation and appoint the former Mumbai police commissioner Dattatray Padsalgikar to supervise the inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation into the ethnic violence cases.

The all-women committee to be headed by Justice Gita Mittal, a former Chief Justice of the Jammu & Kashmir High Court, and include Justice Shalini Phansalkar Joshi, a retired Bombay High Court judge, and Justice Asha Menon, a former Delhi High Court judge, would apart from investigation, also look into rehabilitation and other humanitarian aspects in cases related to the ethnic violence in the state. The ambit of the committee will be wider than just probing incidents of violence.

The bench was Monday hearing around 10 petitions relating to the violence seeking reliefs, including court-monitored probe, into cases besides measures for rehabilitation and other relief.

Chief Justice of India (CJI) D.Y. Chandrachud announced the appointment of the committee in the open court. “Our efforts are to restore a sense of confidence in the rule of law. We will constitute at one level a committee of three former HC judges. This committee will be looking at things apart from investigation – including relief, remedial measures etc.” the court said.

“This will be a broad-based committee which will be constituted to supervise, intervene and monitor relief and rehabilitation, restoration of homesteads, religious places of worships, better relief work, etc,” CJI Chandrachud, heading a three-judge Bench, said.

The former IPS officer Padsalgikar will oversee the CBI investigation, the court said, adding that there will be five officers of at least the rank of DySP, brought into the CBI from various states. These officers will also be functioning within the four corners of infrastructure and administrative structure of CBI, the court said. The retired Maharashtra cadre IPS officer Padsalgikar had served in the National Investigation Agency, the Intelligence Bureau, and in Nagaland.

“There will be 42 SITs looking at cases which have not been transferred to CBI. These SITs should be supervised by DIG ranked officers from outside Manipur. Each officer will monitor six SITs to see that the investigation is going correctly,” the court added.

The Centre which wanted the Manipur state police to handle all the investigations said district-wise Special Investigation Teams would be formed to probe cases related to violence. The Supreme Court, which reserved its order on the plea seeking Court Monitored Committee to investigate violence related cases in the north-eastern state.

The top court, however, said it wanted eyes from outside the State to keep an eye on the State Police probe into these cases, which include serious offences like murder, arson, etc. The apex court said it would direct Directors General of Police (DGP) from six States to name six DIG rank officers. These DIG officers would take charge of six SITs each and monitor their work.

Manipur Director General of Police Rajiv Singh was present in the hearing before a bench headed by Chief justice DY Chandrachud to answer queries on the ethnic violence and steps taken by the administration so far, besides the segregation of cases for the purposes of effective investigation.

“Without allowing any external investigation, let SITs be formed at district levels,” Attorney General R Venkataramani said. If there are more than 11 First Information Reports, or FIRs, pertaining to crime against women which are being probed by the CBI, they would be probed by district level SITs headed by a Superintendent of Police rank officer, who will all be women, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said.

The CBI team, which will be investigating this, has two lady SP officers. CBI has officers from all across the country. We have taken that balance,” he said. The Attorney General told the court the government was handling the situation on a very mature level, and has filed an affidavit with segregation of cases.

Senior Advocate Indira Jaising argued the conflict was ongoing, and suggested a two-fold approach — investigation and prevention of further crimes. Advocate Nizam Pasha, who the Supreme Court had last month lauded for his valuable and “fair” suggestions aimed at mitigating the ongoing crisis, said there were 16 FIRs which were crimes against women and all of them need to be transferred to the CBI.

“They’re calling it an SIT but it is selected by state…The allegations are against the state police — ranging from active participation to perpetration. The concern of selection doesn’t get elevated if the selection is by state cadre. Selection should be by court. For public prosecutors, it should be law officers from other states,” he said.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan argued there has to be an independent body to investigate supply of arms and ammunitions. The Centre argued it may not be appropriate to not trust the police with the probe. “It may not be appropriate not to trust the police officers. For the proposed committee to be constituted by the Supreme Court, let judicial officers alone be included, not the civil society groups,” SG Mehta said.

On August 1, the top court had said there was a complete breakdown of law and order and constitutional machinery in Manipur. It had rapped the state police for a “tardy” and “lethargic” probe of incidents of ethnic violence, especially those targeting women, and had summoned the DGP to answer its queries in the court.

The Centre had urged the bench that instead of the two FIRs related to a video showing women being paraded naked by a mob, 11 out of 6,523 FIRs linked to violence against women and children may be transferred to the CBI and tried out of Manipur.

A recent State Government status report had said there had been 150 deaths, including 59 deaths between May 3 and May 5. Another 28 people lost their lives between May 27 and May 29. Thirteen more died in the violence on June 9. The report showed that 502 people were injured in the clashes. There were 5,107 cases of arson. It said that 252 people had been arrested, with another 12,740 arrests made as a preventive measure.

But while the video of two women paraded naked had rocked the country, later reports also revealed that there were many more cases of gruesome atrocities on women in Manipur. The house of one of the accused in Manipur sexual assault case was burnt down by miscreants in Kangpokpi district on July 21 after the video became viral.

Two days after three women were disrobed, raped and two of them paraded naked, a 45-year-old woman was stripped and set ablaze in Imphal East on May 6. A photo of the charred body of the woman has now surfaced on social media. The incidents are among a series of crimes committed against women since ethnic violence erupted in the state on May 3 despite an Internet ban that has been imposed in the State.

Last week, 10 Manipur legislators, including seven from the ruling BJP, belonging to the tribal Kuki-Zomi community, released a statement mentioning at least four other incidents where women belonging to their community were either raped or murdered since May 3.

Thianna Vaiphei Sauntak, a pastor at Pheitaiching village, said he had found the semi-charred body of the 45-year-old mother of two on May 7, a day after a large mob had attacked the village. He said he went there under army protection. “The body was half burnt, she was naked. The body was taken away to a government hospital in Imphal, we do not know where it is,” Sauntak said.

The pastor recalled that armed men wearing black shirts had descended on the village on May 6. He claimed that Manipur Police commandos had accompanied the mob. “While our houses were torched, most villagers were able to flee the scene. The woman, who used to live alone, could not run away and was caught by the mob. She was killed, her body was mutilated,” he said.

He added that it was on his complaint that a zero First Information Report (FIR) was registered in Kangpokpi for rioting, murder, and mischief by fire. A police source said the case had been transferred to Imphal East. “We always expected the police to help us, instead they fired at us. The village volunteers also ran away, the woman was left behind. It is a horrible situation, I have never experienced anything like this before,” the pastor added.