NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to take up a petition filed by over 350 Army personnel challenging the CBI probe against security forces in disturbed areas.
The petitioners challenged the dilution of Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and contended that military operations against insurgency would be adversely affected by such probe against soldiers. A Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra heard the urgent mentioning of advocate Aishwarya Bhati and slated it for detailed hearing on August 20.
According to the petition, “Military operations in border areas will suffer if dilution of AFSPA in disturbed areas was allowed as it exposed security forces to unnecessary risks. Protection of soldiers acting in good faith under AFSPA is imperative to protect the soldiers engaged with direct and proxy enemy and insurgency and cannot be diluted without a specific and categorical amendment in law.”
The plea was filed after two weeks of the CBI statement before the apex court that the agency had filed two charge sheets against 15 security personnel in connection with fake encounter killings and 14 of them had been charged with murder, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence.The SC had in July 2017 directed a CBI probe into alleged extra-judicial killings by Army, Assam Rifles and Manipur Police in the insurgency-hit State. It had asked the CBI Director to appoint an SIT to conduct the probe into the alleged killings. The order had come on a PIL seeking probe and compensation in the alleged 1,528 extra-judicial killings by security forces in Manipur between 2000 and 2012.
The petition by Army men is essentially against the top court’s recent orders to the CBI to register FIRs, investigate and prosecute security forces for alleged extra-judicial killings in Manipur during operations in the insurgency-hit northeastern state in the past two decades.The petitioners have demanded laying down of specific guidelines to protect the bona fide action of soldiers under AFSPA, so that no soldier is harassed by initiation of criminal proceedings.