Viral Video Incident: Supreme Court Raps Manipur Govt over Delay in Registering FIR

 ‘Incident of viral video came to light on May 4, why it took 14 days to register zero FIR?’

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday questioned the Manipur government about the delay in filing FIR in the viral video case, in which two women were paraded naked and subjected to sexual violence by a mob.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud asked the government why the police took 14 days to register the zero FIR. “Why was the FIR registered on May 18 when the incident happened on May 4? What were the police doing from May 4 to 18? The incident came to light that women are being paraded naked and at least two were raped. What was the police doing?” asked the bench.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the government said that government has nothing to hide. “This court can monitor the situation. Something coming from here or there will be hazardous,” he added. CJI asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that of the 6,000 FIRs, how many of them involve crimes against women?

“How many involve offences like murder, arson etc? What is the bifurcation between these 6,000 FIRs? How many of these were zero FIRs? How many such zero FIRs were registered, when were these zero FIRs transferred to jurisdictional police stations, what was the action taken, and to what extent has been legal aid provided?” CJI further asked.

“The other thing, is this the only standalone incident of violence on women? Or how many such FIRs are there?” asked CJI Chandrachud.

The top court called for evolving a broad mechanism to deal with violence against women in Manipur and asked the government about how many FIRs have been registered in such incidents in the state since May. The bench also comprising Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra said the violence in Manipur is of an “unprecedented magnitude”, happening in the middle of “communal and sectarian strife”.

The apex court was hearing issues relating to the video from Manipur where two women were paraded naked and a batch of petitions relating to the ethnic violence which has been going on in the State since May. The bench, during the hearing, contemplated the formation of a committee of retired women and male judges to probe incidents of sexual violence against women in Manipur. The top court did not pass any order and posted the matter for hearing tomorrow at 2 pm. However, it sought details of action taken by the State authorities up till now including the details about the 6,000 FIRs claimed to have been registered.

The apex court asked Manipur government about the bifurcation of 6,000 FIR (how many FIRs fall under various crimes), how many zero FIR, how many arrests made so far, how many are in judicial custody, what action taken, how many involving sexual violence, the position of legal aid to the victims, how many statements are recorded under section 164 of Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) by the nearest area magistrate.

The women victims have also filed pleas in the top court against the CBI probe into their case and sought security for them and also prayed for a direction to record their statement under Section 164 of CrPC by the nearest area magistrate. They also sought a probe into their case by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) under the monitoring of the top court. To this, the bench sought the opinion of the Centre and State governments on the composition of the SIT in case it is constituted.

“Ultimately if we do accept the request of SIT, please give us your names also and your opinion on the names given by the petitioners (on the formation of SIT) as well. We have to do our own background checks. Tell us if the names are good ones. Give us your names also, AG,” said CJI. “The idea is ultimately that we restore the faith of the community, in constitutional process and that is the message we need to send,” the bench said.

At the request of the State, the Centre has already ordered a CBI probe into the May 4 incident and asked the court to transfer the trial outside Manipur with a mandate to complete the trial in six months. A counsel appearing for the Meitei community told the bench that there is not only one video which went viral; there are many such videos where people were executed in public view. CJI Chandrachud said that violence perpetuated against any community will be dealt with even-handedly. “Rest assured that it is our duty to attend to these violent acts irrespective of caste etc. I know seniors have appeared from Kukis etc…but be assured we will look at this irrespective of any caste or community,” CJI told an advocate appearing for Meitei side.

CJI acknowledged that there will be victims who are Meiteis also. “Obviously there will be violence on both sides. It’s an issue of communal strife,” the bench said. Attorney General for India R Venkataramani told the Supreme Court, “All of us are engaged in a very complex engagement.”

“We have to see what is triggering it. If someone sees why it’s happening, there is a landmine of issues. The range of circumstances in the case is wide. Every case has a special feature,” AG said.

Advocate Bansuri Swaraj told the court that similar to Manipur, incidents happened in West Bengal and Rajasthan. A video came of a Panchayat candidate who was stripped and paraded naked in West Bengal, she said requesting the apex court to take cognisance of the crimes against women in West Bengal also. “Along with the case, there have been horrific cases of rape in Bengal and other states. Daughters pan India need to be protected,” Swaraj said. She added that in West Bengal, a mob of 40 had paraded a female poll candidate naked and this happened in Chhattisgarh also.

Not convinced by the prayers in the plea, CJI said, “We are dealing with an unprecedented magnitude of violence against women in communal and sectarian strife. We can’t justify what happened in Manipur by saying that this and this happened elsewhere. Are you saying protect all women or don’t protect anyone?” (ANI)

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