Probe ‘extra-judicial’ killings in Manipur, SC tells CBI 

Probe ‘extra-judicial’ killings in Manipur, SC tells CBI  (SC orders CBI probe against AFSPA activities during Manipur insurgency)

Context

• The Supreme Court ordered a time-bound CBI probe into the deaths of over 80 civilians in disturbed areas under the grip of the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, in the north-eastern State of Manipur during the heights of insurgency.

The judgement

• A Bench of Justices Madan B.
• Lokur and U.U. Lalit snubbed to entertain the Centre’s argument that such crimes were “vintage” and there was no need to re-visit them.
• The Centre in its defense said that victim’s families were compensated and nothing more needed to be done.
• The Centre blamed local pressures and the ground situation as the reasons behind the years of neglect.
• Justice Lokur, stating the dos and don’t’s and the ten commandments of the Army chief, requires enquiry.
• Parents and families of the victims had approached the court for answers in the cases of 1,528 persons finished off in what they termed as “extra-judicial killings”.
• The crime allegedly committed by the police and “personnel in uniform of the armed forces of the Union” will be scrutinized.
• Not a single Fir was registered against any personnel of the Manipur Police for all these years.
• SC observed that heinous crimes can never get settled through payment of monetary compensation.