Manipur fake encounter cases: SC pulls up CBI for delay in arrests

New Delhi, July 30: Attorney General KK Venugopal on Monday submitted to the Supreme Court that two more charge sheets will be filed soon in Manipur fake encounter cases.

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director Alok Kumar Verma appeared before Supreme Court after the court sought his presence before it in the previous date of hearing on July 27.

The Supreme Court asked the CBI Director about the problems the probe agency is facing. The Court said, "You can sit together with your officers and discuss. You are dealing with peoples' lives."

The court said there were 41 FIRs registered in the case and they were against dead people. The CBI, however, told the case, no arrests had been made since the cases were old.

The court observed, " so murderers are loafing around in Manipur. According to your chargesheets, they are murderers and yet you allow them to roam around in the streets of Imphal."

The CBI then said that there was nothing to recover from them after 30 years. The court then said, " if somebody commits rape, what is there to recover. So you will allow them to roam free."

In the last hearing, the apex court slammed the CBI's SIT for taking "unduly long time" in probing the cases of alleged extra-judicial killings and fake encounters by the Army, Assam Rifles and the police in Manipur.

"Tell your people to quit if they cannot do this job. If they cannot do it, tell them to quit," the court told Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Maninder Singh, appearing for the SIT (Special Investigating Team).

A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit had expressed dissatisfaction over the progress made so far.

On July 5, the apex court had directed the SIT to file final reports in four cases by July 27 saying violation of human rights cannot be tolerated.

(With PTI inputs)