Manipur High Court asks NIA to submit progress report on Jiribam abduction, killing of women and children

The Manipur High Court has asked the National Investigation Agency (NIA) to file a detailed progress report on the investigation into the abduction and killing of six women and children from the Meitei community amidst the flare-up in the ethnic conflict seen in Manipur’s Jiribam district last November.

Also read: Why is Manipur’s Jiribam district on edge? | Explained

This came up when a Bench of Chief Justice K. Somashekar and Justice Ahanthem Bimol Singh was hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by the office-bearers of the civil society organisation Uripok Apunba Lup, a conglomerate of dozens of local clubs in the Uripok area.  

The petitioners had called for detailed records of the case, and prayed for directions to arrest those involved in the crime, and a speedy and time-bound probe into the case. In a July 7 order of the Bench, the High Court said it had almost been seven months since the incident and “no progress report is submitted by the NIA”.  

The court said the NIA’s advocate had sought additional time to come back to it with a detailed progress report “in terms of the chargesheet”. The court went on to direct the NIA to submit the “detailed progress report in terms of chargesheet before the concerned court of Law”.  

“If chargesheet is not filed, this matter should be viewed seriously,” the court added. The High Court has listed the matter for the next hearing on July 24.  

After the November flare-up in the ethnic conflict in Manipur’s Jiribam district, the NIA had taken up two other cases for investigation, apart from the abduction and killing of the six women and children from the Meitei community.  

One was for the alleged rape and burning alive of a Kuki-Zo woman, Zosangkim (31), in Jiribam on November 7; and the alleged attack on a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) post in Jiribam’s Borobekra on November 11, in which 10 armed militants were gunned down. 

Earlier, in the hearing of this PIL, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had filed an affidavit before the court, arguing that since the Jiribam cases were a matter of “law and order, they fall under the State government”. This statement had come even after the NIA, a central agency, had taken over the cases.  

Since this affidavit of the MHA, however, Chief Minister N. Biren Singh resigned, and Manipur was placed under President’s Rule.