The Supreme Court on Friday ordered the transfer of cases related to Manipur violence to the neighboring state of Assam.
For this, the court has issued instructions to the Chief Justice of Guahati High Court.
The bench said- Appoint one or more special judges for the trial of the cases related to the Manipur violence being investigated by the CBI.
The court has also said that keeping in view the security, the production and remand of the accused will be online. Apart from this, statements of witnesses and victims under 164 will also be recorded in front of the local magistrate in Manipur. Along with this, judicial custody of the accused will also be given in Manipur.
Court directs Manipur government to provide proper internet service to facilitate trial of CBI cases. If the victim, witness and accused do not want to be present online in the court, then they are allowed physical appearance in the court.
A bench of CJI Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra issued this order following the suggestions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta. 53 CBI officers are probing 20 cases of violence. These include 29 women. These officers have been collected from CBI offices across the country.
Colin Gonsalves, Chander Uday Singh, Indira Jaisingh and Vrinda Grover of the victims objected to the proposal to transfer the cases to Assam.
Gonsalves said the trials should take place at the places where the crimes took place. The victims cannot be forced to go to Assam. Indira Jaising said that this is against the assurance given earlier by the Solicitor General.
The violence between the Kuki and Meitei communities running in the state since May 3 has resulted in over 160 deaths.
The Center had told the Supreme Court that 6 thousand 523 FIRs have been registered in Manipur. Of these, 11 cases are related to violence against women and children.
The Supreme Court had on August 7 said that 42 Special Investigation Teams (SITs) would investigate cases related to violence in Manipur.
Security forces conducted search operations at several places in Manipur on Thursday, 24 August. During this, four guns, 38 cartridges and 8 bombs were recovered from the districts of Imphal East and West.
According to a statement issued from the Manipur Police Control Room, the search operation was carried out in sensitive areas of Imphal East-West besides Kakching, Kangpokpi and Thoubal districts.
Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh also reacted to Rahul Gandhi’s statement to the media on Thursday.
He said that if he is in Ladakh then he should speak about Ladakh and not Manipur. CM said- why did he think about Manipur while staying there? Whatever is happening in Manipur today is all done by the Congress. Politics should not be done on human life.
Manipur Police has appealed to the general public of the state not to believe in rumors and beware of fake videos.
Along with this, the number of the Central Control Room – 9233522822 – has been issued to confirm whether any video is real or fake.
The police have also appealed to the public to immediately return the looted arms, ammunition and explosives.
According to the Manipur Police, the situation was tense in the state during the last 24 hours due to sporadic incidents of protesters gathering.
A total of 123 nakas or checkpoints have been set up in both the hill and valley districts of Manipur. Police have detained 1581 people in connection with rule violations in different districts.
