CBI to probe Manipur encounters

The Supreme Court ordered on Friday a federal investigation into 62 alleged extra-judicial killings by security forces in Manipur, overruling objections by the government and the army in a landmark decision likely to be hailed by human rights activists.

The court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to set up special teams for the probe and asked the agency’s director to respond within two weeks. The army — which is accused in 28 of the 62 cases — wanted an internal probe.

In July last year, the top court had ruled that all incidents involving suspected use of excessive and retaliatory force by the army in Manipur must be investigated.

The decision had come on a petition that alleged 1,528 extrajudicial killings by the army and other security forces during 2010-12 in Manipur.

“The army and paramilitary personnel ‘cannot use excessive or retaliatory force’ even in areas where the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958 (AFSPA) had been notified,” the order had said.

On April 20, the Army had told the apex court that it cannot be subjected to FIRs for carrying out anti-militancy operations in insurgency-prone areas like Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur, while alleging local bias in judicial inquiries conducted against it in these regions, which have tarnished its image.

“In every military operation, the Army cannot be disbelieved. Every judicial inquiry cannot be against the Army. The alleged extra-judicial killing cases in Manipur are not cases of massacre, rather these are cases of military operations,” the Centre had told the court.

The bench had also pulled up the Manipur government for not taking action on such alleged fake encounters by armed forces and asked was it “not supposed to do anything”.