May consider setting up panel, give break-up of all FIRs: SC on Manipur.

While a court-appointed team will not “supplant” the investigating officers, there is a need to administer “some healing touch”, the court said, adding that such a team would send across the message that the “highest constitutional court of the country is deeply concerned”.

QUESTIONING THE delay in filing an FIR in the case related to the video clip of two women being paraded naked in Manipur, the Supreme Court on Monday expressed concern over the “systemic acts of violence” and said it could consider “intervention”, including setting up a team of “officers or judges… who are not politically aligned”. The court also asked for details of the “6,000 FIRs” filed in the state, and the action taken.

While a court-appointed team will not “supplant” the investigating officers, there is a need to administer “some healing touch”, the court said, adding that such a team would send across the message that the “highest constitutional court of the country is deeply concerned”.

“The extent of our intervention will also depend on what the government has done so far. If we are satisfied that the government has done adequately so far, we may not intervene at all. But if we are not satisfied, then we feel there is a grave and urgent need for us to do so,” Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud said.

The Bench, which included Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, was hearing a clutch of petitions on the violence in Manipur, including the May 4 incident of the women being paraded naked and assaulted.

“What were the police doing from May 4 to May 18? An incident has come to light involving the women being paraded naked in the presence of a mob, at least two of them have been raped. What were the police doing for 14 days to register an FIR… 14 days the police takes to register a zero FIR… There can’t be any justification for not registering a zero FIR where the assailants are unknown, the perpetrators are unknown. So what stood in the way of the police registering an FIR immediately after May 4,” the CJI said.

Attorney General R Venkataramani told the Bench the issue has several dimensions and urged the court to allow some more time to ascertain the sequence of events.