The Supreme Court on Tuesday criticised the Special Investigation Team of the Central Bureau of Investigation that is looking into the alleged extrajudicial killings and fake encounters by the Army, the Assam Rifles and the police in Manipur, PTI reported. The top court rebuked the team for not registering First Information Reports in 81 cases, as the bench had ordered in July 2017.
The SIT informed the bench of justices Madan Lokur and UU Lalit that it had registered only 12 FIRs till date. The court then asked the investigating team to file 30 more FIRs before January 31 and also directed it to complete investigating the 12 cases with FIRs by February 28.
The Supreme Court also said that the CBI director must approve the status reports before the investigating team files them, and that the agency must monitor the progress of the investigation. The bench scheduled the next hearing for March 12.
On July 14, 2017, the top court had set up an SIT comprising five CBI officers and ordered it to register FIRs and investigate 1,528 cases of alleged fake encounters and extrajudicial killings in Manipur. It had asked the CBI to complete the investigation by December 31, 2017.
Of the 81 cases, 32 cases are probed by a Commission of Enquiry, 32 cases are investigated by judicial enquiries and high courts, the National Human Rights Commission has awarded compensation in 11 cases, while a commission headed by former Supreme Court Justice Santosh Hegde is probing six cases, PTI reported.
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