Complete breakdown of law & order in Manipur, says SC, summons DGP

NT Bureau, Agencies

New Delhi: Observing there is complete breakdown of law and order and constitutional machinery in Manipur, the Supreme Court Tuesday rapped the police for “tardy” and “lethargic” probe of incidents of ethnic violence, especially those targeting women, and summoned the DGP to answer queries on August 7.

Excoriating the law enforcement machinery over unbridled ethnic violence, it said the state police have completely lost control over the law and order situation, and sought details from the state government in a “tabulated format” segregating cases involving murder, rape, arson and loot, destruction of house and property, places of worship, and outraging of modesty of women.

The Centre, represented by Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, urged the bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud that instead of the two FIRs related to a video showing women being paraded naked by a mob, all 11 out of 6,523 FIRs linked to violence against women and children may be transferred to the CBI and tried out of Manipur.

Hearing a clutch of petitions on the mayhem in the northeastern state, a bench, also comprising justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said it was considering setting up a committee comprising former high court judges to monitor the probe and the subsequent trial in all FIRs as it will be difficult for the CBI to handle them alone.

“At the present stage, the material is inadequate as there is no segregation of 6,523 FIRs into the nature of the offences to which they pertain.

The state must carry out the segregation and inform the court on how many FIRs pertain to murder, rape, arson and looting, destruction of property and outraging of modesty,'' the bench said in its order.