New Delhi , 25 :The Supreme Court has transferred the Manipur violence cases transferred to the CBI to Assam. A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud asked the Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court to assign the hearing to one or more judges. The hearing will be held in online mode. The next hearing on the matter will be on September 1.
The Court said that the statements of the witnesses under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure would be recorded by the Magistrate of Manipur. The court said that this is being done in view of the prevailing situation there. When the matter comes to the stage of trial, during that time we can also pass orders.
During the hearing, the petitioners opposed the transfer of the case to Assam. Advocate Colin Gonsalves said that the victims cannot be forced to go to Assam. Advocate Indira Jaising said that this is contrary to the assurance given by the Solicitor General. Advocate Nizam Pasha said that Manipur violence victims would also face language problems in Assam. Then the Chief Justice said that the victims could record their statements in a virtual manner. Then the petitioners said that there is an internet problem in Manipur.
In fact, the committee of three retired women judges constituted in this matter submitted three reports to the Supreme Court on August 21.
The court had asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to cooperate after seeing the report. On August 7, the Supreme Court constituted a three-member committee headed by former Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court Gita Mittal, comprising Justice Shalini Joshi and Justice Asha Menon. The court appointed former IPS officer Dattatreya Padsalgikar to supervise the CBI probe.
The court had said that our effort is to restore a sense of faith in the rule of law. Apart from the investigation, this committee will also look into other things, including relief, remedial measures, etc.
The court said that the CBI will investigate 11 FIRs related to crimes related to women, but five DSP-level officers from different states will be included in these. The Chief Justice said that five DCP-level officers would be brought on deputation to the CBI to supervise then investigation of 11 FIRs.
Handing over the investigation of the FIR to the CBI, the court had said that five high police officers would investigate them. They will be brought on deputation from different states. The Supreme Court had entrusted the supervision of the investigation in the violence cases to former Maharashtra IPS officer Dattatreya Padsaljilkar, who would supervise all the investigations related to the violence and hand over
the investigation to the court.
The Chief Justice had said that the investigation of crimes against women would be done by the CBI only, but five officers of the rank of Deputy SP would be taken from other states in the CBI for an independent and impartial investigation. In the police investigation of the remaining cases, 42 SITs will be formed, which will be headed by an officer of the rank of SP. Apart from this, SP-rank officers will supervise the SIT.
