The Supreme Court expressed deep concern over the “disturbing” video of two women being paraded naked in Manipur and pointed out the long delay in registering the FIR related to the incident. The court stated that there has been an absolute breakdown of constitutional machinery in Manipur for the past two months.
The tension in Manipur escalated due to ongoing ethnic violence, and the emergence of the video on May 4 intensified the situation. The video showed two women from one community being humiliated by a mob from the other community.
The bench, led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, highlighted the delay in filing the FIR and questioned the Manipur government about the matter. The government stated that they had filed 6,523 FIRs after the eruption of ethnic violence.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre and Manipur government, informed the court that the state police had filed a ‘zero’ FIR in connection with the incident. He also mentioned that seven people, including a juvenile, had been arrested in connection with the video case.
The court ordered the CBI not to record the statements of the victim women during the day, as they were scheduled to hear a batch of petitions on the issue at 2 pm.
Lawyer Nizam Pasha, representing the two women, informed the court that the CBI had asked them to depose before them during the day. The court took note of this information.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had described the video as “horrendous” and raised questions about the delayed registration of the FIR. It also discussed the possibility of setting up a committee of retired judges or a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to oversee the probe. The hearing is still ongoing.
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