Top court questions why the FIR was registered on May 18 when the incident happened on May 4
New Delhi, July 31(Press Ki Taquat)
The Supreme Court Monday termed as “horrendous” the video of two women being paraded naked in Manipur and sought information about steps taken so far in the FIRs lodged, saying now it will not want the state police to probe the matter as they virtually handed over the women to the rioting mob.
The top court said it may constitute an SIT or a committee comprising former judges to monitor the situation in the strife-torn state subject to hearing the law officers representing the Centre and Manipur on Tuesday.The Bench, which listed a clutch of pleas on Manipur violence for hearing on Tuesday, said though the incident of stripping and parading these women came to light on May 4, why the Manipur police took 14 days to register an FIR on May 18.“What was police doing? Why was an FIR in video case transferred to magisterial court on June 24, that is after one month and three days,” asked the bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra.
On July 27, the Centre informed the top court it has transferred the probe into the case involving the two women to the CBI and asserted the government has “zero tolerance towards crimes against women”.
The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), in an affidavit filed through its Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, also urged the top court to transfer the trial of the case outside Manipur for its conclusion in a time-bound manner. Seven people have been arrested in the case so far.Scores of 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.
