The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the CBI for not doing enough in probing into the extra-judicial killings by Army and police in Manipur. Stating there was something "terribly wrong" with the manner of probe being conducted by a Special Investigation Team (SIT), the court ordered the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to depute three persons with the SIT in the investigation of 17 out of 42 cases lodged by SIT.
The SIT, led by DIG Sharad Agarwal, presented a status report of the probe conducted so far and was shocked to see that some of the FIRs registered in connection with the 42 cases were against person allegedly killed in the fake encounters. A bench of Justices Madan B lokur and UU lalit said, "What kind of investigation is this…The allegations are that some persons were killed in fake encounters due to excessive use of force. The commission of inquiry, Hegde commission, high court and NHRC said that there was excess use of force. The persons who have used that excessive force are the accused…why you have just re-registered the FIRsIJ I am sorry but there is something terribly wrong."
Justice lokur pointed out that the status report does not even say that FIRs have been lodged against "unknown uniformed people". "We wanted the SIT to investigate the matter so that the truth will come out. You have only re-registered the FIRs," the bench added.
DIG Agarwal who was present in Court informed the bench that investigations were going on in accordance with the Court's direction. He stated that all FIRs lodged earlier by the Manipur police have been re-registered by the probe team. At this, the bench said, "We are not satisfied by the progress made by the SIT. All we want is to expedite the investigation."
The Court was also anguished to note that the status report presented by SIT did not have the approval of the CBI Director. This despite the Court's earlier orders reminding SIT to have all its status reports vetted by the CBI Director. Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Maninder Singh who appeared for the SIT informed the Court that the report was approved by the CBI Director. The bench directed Singh to ensure that the next status report must carry the approval of the CBI director specifically, while posting the matter for further hearing on March 12.
The Court asked NHRC to depute three persons who will be associated with the five-member SIT in the investigation in respect of 17 cases under probe. The bench reminded the SIT to examine and investigate all facets of each case.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves who appeared for the victims of extra-judicial killings submitted that there was resistance on part of the SIT to lodge FIRs. The bench, while making it clear that it has confidence in the SIT, said, "CBI has not understood us correctly. You have to proceed with the investigation in accordance with our judgment."