Manipur fake encounter cases: CBI yet to receive complete records from police, armed forces, say officials

New Delhi: The CBI which is probing 41 cases related to extrajudicial killings in Manipur is yet to get complete records from local police, army and paramilitary forces allegedly involved in the crime, officials said on Monday. After the orders of the Supreme Court to register fresh cases in the fake encounters rather than re-registering police FIRs (a norm followed by the CBI), the agency has registered 27 cases and filed two charge sheets, they said. In one of the charge sheets in a custodial killing matter, the CBI has found that local police in its probe had falsely claimed that the victim had a fight with militants in which he was beaten up severely and succumbed to those injuries in custody. [caption id=“attachment_4731151” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] The CBI has filed chargesheet against a sub-inspector of the Manipur Police and others in the case while in another case of fake encounter a deputy superintendent of police-ranked officer has been charged for alleged murder. Charge sheets have been filed against a total of 14 persons in these two cases, they said, adding that the charge sheets are supported by scientific evidence, police station records, forensic, medical and autopsy reports and statements of witnesses. The officials said oldest case with them related to 41 cases handed over by the Supreme Court in Manipur fake encounters is approximately 27-year-old. The difficulties being faced by the agency in pursuing these cases is getting documents and relevant records from forces like the local police, army’s Maratha Light Infantry, Assam Rifles, CRPF and BSF, they said. Most of the records have reached the agency in June but still a lot of documents are missing from them, they said. The agency officials said it is likely to file its final report in five more cases by August end. The Extrajudicial Execution Victims’ Association had approached the Supreme Court seeking a CBI probe in 1,528 such alleged killings by forces in Manipur between 1979-2012. Through an order on 14 July, 2017, the apex court handed over four kinds of cases related to 52 extrajudicial killings incidents with 102 victims — already a Commission of Inquiry was set up, judicial inquiry, NHRC cases and cases arising out of a probe by Justice Santosh Hegde (retd) commission. Later, some of these cases were dismissed by local courts. With the permission of the Supreme Court, the CBI took over 41 cases involving 86 victims of extrajudicial killings, they said. The agency started its regular procedure of taking over investigation by re-registering police FIRs but was directed by the apex court in February to stop this practice and register fresh FIRs, they said. Registering a fresh FIR requires lot of legal applications as one has to ascertain the accused and possible accused as well, they said, adding that the CBI registered 27 FIRs from February to July and will register 14 more soon.