NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the CBI to file final reports in four cases of alleged extra-judicial killings and fake encounters by the Army, Assam Rifles and police in Manipur by July 27, saying violation of human rights cannot be tolerated.
A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit passed the direction after the CBI's special investigating team told the court that they have completed investigation in four cases and final reports were in the process of being finalised. During the hearing, the bench observed, "What had happened in Manipur appeared to be widespread and the issue must be given far more important as people have lost their lives."
"There are two things. We are not talking about a violation of human rights only. We are talking about deaths. Death could be murder or could not be murder. This has to be given far more importance than violation of human rights," the court said while directing two officers of the National Human Rights Commission, Senior Superintendent of Police Mahesh Bhardwaj and Deputy Superintendent of Police Ravi Singh, to be made members of the SIT which would probe the remaining encounter cases.
The court was hearing a PIL seeking a probe into as many as 1,528 cases of extra-judicial killings in Manipur, had on July 14 last year constituted the SIT and ordered lodging of FIRs and probe into the cases of alleged extra-judicial killings in Manipur. Ends.