SC summons CBI Director over slow investigation in Manipur Extra-Judicial killings case

The Supreme Court has sought the personal presence of the Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) with regard to the “unduly long time” taken by the CBI in probing the alleged extra-judicial encounter killings in Manipur..The Bench of Justice Madan Lokur and Justice UU Lalit, which is hearing the matter, expressed its dissatisfaction at the slow pace of CBI investigation against the Armed Forces and Manipur Police personnel, who have been accused of the killings..The case pertains to 1582 cases of alleged extra-judicial killings in Manipur between the years 2000 and 2012. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the CBI, constituted in July 2017, was to probe these cases and a final report in four of these cases was expected to be filed before the Court yesterday..However, during the course of the hearing, Additional Solicitor General Maninder Singh sought more time from the Court for the filing of these reports which irked the Bench and forced Justice Lokur to come down heavily on the investigating agency..“Tell your people (members of the CBI SIT) to quit if they can’t do the job”, Justice Lokur told Singh..The Court made it abundantly clear that it was not satisfied with the slow pace of the investigation with no final report in even a single case having been filed..“If this is the attitude of the CBI then we will give you directions and we do not need your consent to issue directions… we wanted the investigation done expeditiously”, an agitated Justice Lokur told Singh appearing for the Central agency..The Court was apprised of the procedure laid down in the CBI manual to deal with cases like these which is a ten-stage process beginning with the Investigating Officer to the final approval from the Director of the CBI..The Court was informed that, as it stands today, investigation has been completed in a total of seven cases – four were concluded by June 29 and three more cases subsequently..Justice UU Lalit proposed the idea that the Court would pass an order for all the concerned officials in this ten-stage process to sit together and complete one case each day and the documentation work in the seven cases would be finished within a week..“The underlying principle is to expedite the process. You have to have the elasticity based on a situation. If the CBI manual does not allow for a deviation (from the ten-stage approval process), we will create this deviation”, Justice Lalit said..However, after Singh resisted this proposal on the grounds that it would be difficult to implement, the Court decided to hold a discussion with the Director of the CBI on this matter..The Court, therefore, proceeded to seek the CBI Director’s personal presence on July 30 at 2 PM to discuss the steps to be taken to ensure expeditious investigation in these cases..“[W]e would like to know from the Director of the CBI what steps must be taken to ensure that the investigations are completed early and final reports are filed as expeditiously as possible. We would like a time-line to be laid down by the Director of the CBI”, the Court said in its order..Read the order below.