- CBI to continue probing sexual violence cases reported from state
New Delhi, Aug 7.
The Supreme Court on Monday sent an all-women judges’ team to lend a healing touch and restore faith in rule of law in the strife-torn state of Manipur. The team comprises former Delhi High Court Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justices Shalini Joshi and Asha Menon. Justice Joshi is from the Bombay High court and Menon is from the Delhi High Court.
The shocking sexual assault and gang-rape cases, at least 11 of them, recently reported from the state would continue to be probed by the CBI. The top court had initially held out the hope that these cases, including a case in which two women were raped and paraded naked, would be assigned to a special investigative team (SIT).
But the top court eventually decided to allow the CBI to continue these probes as requested by the central government. The central government had transferred these cases to the CBI in a hurry amidst public outrage over a video which showed the women being paraded naked and molested by a mob.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had opposed any special SIT to deal with these cases. He also resisted any attempt to get the Union government to add to these 11 cases.
A formal court order, on the contours within which the court-appointed judges’ panel will work, is awaited. The panel is also expected to broadly oversee the probe into the sexual violence cases being carried out by both the state police and the CBI. The other cases involving heinous crimes will also be probed by the state police.
The court said that it will add another layer of supervision of the investigations by way of appointing former Maharashtra DGP and NIA officer Dattatray Padsalgikar, besides setting up smaller units of senior police officers brought into the CBI from outside the state to monitor their progress.
There will be some 42 SITs looking at cases which remain with the state police. Each of the senior officers brought into the CBI will oversee 6 of them, the court said. These SITs would each deal with serious crimes in one district. This was in line with the suggestion made today in court by the Attorney General to let investigation be done at an internal level without any external influence.
The top court said it would not address for now the issue of transferring these cases outside the state for trial. That is too premature, the bench led by CJI D.Y. Chandrachud said.
The judges panel will among other things examine immediate issues such as relief and rehabilitation of the affected people, the state of the relief camps and also ways and means to instill confidence in the administration and prevent further violence.
During the hearing today, advocate Vrinda Grover spoke of the need to have the charges pressed against the police aiding the mob and not doing their duty probed.
Senior advocate India Jaising wanted all the rape accused charged under an IPC section dealing with rape during a conflict, and activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan wanted a probe into the repeated looting of arms and ammunition from the police stations. “This caused the violence to again flare up,” Bhushan claimed.
