Manipur Video: Supreme Court moots committee of women judges to examine sexual violence allegations after women paraded naked seek SIT probe

The Supreme Court Monday contemplated formation of a committee of retired woman judges to probe incidents of sexual violence against women in Manipur..A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra stated the same after two Kuki-Zomi women from Manipur who were seen paraded naked by men in a video approached the apex court seeking a probe by a special investigation team (SIT) into the incident."We need objective assistance. One thing we can do is to have a committee of woman judges and domain experts or to have a committee of woman and male judges. If we are not satisfied with what has been done so far that will define the extent of our intervention," the Court said.The Court, however, did not pass any order. Instead it sought details of action taken by the State authorities up until now including the details about the 6,000 first information reports (FIRs) claimed to have been registered. "We need bifurcation of 6,000 FIR how many zero FIR, how many arrests, how many in judicial custody, how many under 156(3), how many section 164 statements recorded and how legal aid is being dispensed with," the Court stated.We can have the answers from the State tomorrow and take it up tomorrow, the bench said.The women sought security for them and also prayed for a direction to record their statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) by the nearest area magistrate.The Attorney General R Venkataramani and the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought more time to furnish details but the Court declined."We are tight on time. All evidence would be gone by then. Look at the Imphal car wash incident. I also read about it. Who will give a statement as to what happened there," the bench asked."But logistically it will not be possible," said SG Mehta. "But all FIRs are online and sub headings are already there," the Court said.The Court also sought the opinion of the State and Centre on the composition of the SIT in case it is constituted."Ultimately if we do accept request of SIT, please give us your names also and opinion on the names given by the petitioners (on the composition of SIT) as well. We have to do our own background checks. Tell us if the names are good ones. Give us your names also AG," the bench stated.The matter will be heard again at 2 pm on Tuesday..The horrific video of two women being paraded naked and molested had gone viral on social media.The clip showed the two women being paraded naked by a mob of men and molested as they move towards a paddy field.According to Mint, the incident happened on May 4 and the women were later gang raped by the mob.The Central government later ordered a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the issue.The Supreme Court also registered a suo motu case after the video of the horrific incident went viral on social media triggering outrage..During the hearing today, Attorney General R Venkataramani volunteered to personally monitor the CBI probe so that there are partisan political intervention pleas before the apex court.Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the two women, said that the police were hand in glove with the perpetrators of the crime. "It is clear that police were collaborating with those who perpetrated the violence against the two women. The police took the two women to the crowd. They took them to the crowd, abandoned them and then what happened has happened," he said.Sibal contended that a CBI probe will not inspire confidence and the matter should be probed by an SIT. "What we need is an agency where the victims will have confidence. How will CBI probe and how will the AG supervise. Let an SIT be formed and then let them inform how many FIRs have been registered. Union government and State do not know even now how many FIRs lodged! That is the sad state of affairs," he said.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the Central government has no objection to the Supreme Court monitoring the CBI probe. "Government of India shares the concern of Mr. Sibal. Government of India has no objection to the Supreme court monitoring the investigation. This shows the transparency," SG Mehta submitted.Senior Advocate Indira Jaising submitted that a confidence building mechanism must be carried out so that all such rape survivors come forward to speak out."I am more on the mechanism. There may be a need to lodge new FIRs. Victims of rape do not talk about it, they are in trauma. The first step is to instill confidence in them and help them tell their story. They are at the moment traumatised and terrorised. First is confidence building mechanism," she said.She, therefore, suggested having a high powered committee to carry out this task."Woman driven from civil society - Uma Chakravarty, Syeda Hameed, Roshni Goswami etc. They are all rooted to the issue in the community.. let them submit a report to you. Women can speak to them and not police officers. We need to install confidence in them (survivors)," Jaising submitted.Senior Advocate Colin Gonsales also sought constitution of an SIT."We are asking for a SIT. We have named three retired DGPs from UP, one retired from Assam. They are known to be independent and they will work independent of any political interference. all journalists who went to cover were informed that women were under protective cover of the police.. and then they were taken to the crowd.. there is a force who are higher up and coordinating all this.. SIT has to unearth the larger conspiracy in Manipur of how rapes are happening in collective and coordinated fashion," he stated.The CBI should not be in the scene at all, he underlined.Advocate Shobha Gupta also echoed similar sentiments. "There has to be an SIT for confidence building measures. A team should be sent from here under aegis of SC- to meet and get victims' first hand statements. On basis of that FIRs should be noted and this was done in Delhi riots case also," she said..Advocate Vrinda Grover, appearing for a women's body, said that there are many cases of sexual violence against women from the Kuki tribe who are in minority in Manipur. "There have been many cases of rape. There were 2 woman who worked at a car wash centre. A mob approached them and since they were Kuki, they were gang raped, tortured and murdered. The families are in relief camps.. no one knows where the bodies are, nothing has proceeded. FIR has been registered and nothing else has happened. There is sexual violence against kuki women who are minority there," she said.She said that provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act should be invoked.SG Mehta responded by saying that communal tension should not be flagged by making such arguments. Advocate Bansuri Swaraj said that the cases of violence against women in West Bengal should also be considered along with this case."Along with the case, here have been horrific cases of rape in Bengal etc... daughters of pan India needs to be protected," she said.She also alleged that similar instances have happened in Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. However, CJI Chandrachud said that those issues can be considered separately since the crimes against women in Manipur were on a different footing due to sectarian angle. He said that similar incidents in other States is not a justification to remain silent with respect to Manipur."We are dealing with something on unprecedented magnitude of violence against women in communal and sectarian violence. It cannot be gainsaid that crimes are happening against woman and in Bengal also. But here the case is different. We cannot justify what happened in Manipur by saying that this and this happened elsewhere," he said..The current clashes and violence in Manipur has stemmed from the opposition of certain tribes to the demand by the majority Meitei community to grant them Scheduled Tribes status.On April 19, 2023, Manipur High Court had ordered the Manipur government to “consider inclusion of the Meetei/Meitei community in the Scheduled Tribe list, expeditiously, preferably within a period four weeks” from the date of the order.This led to clashes between Meiteis and Kuki tribe. Read more about the hearing here. .[Read live coverage of hearing below]