The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the National Investigation Agency and the Manipur government seeking their response on the outcome of the probe conducted into the killing of 10 people by security personnel on November 11, 2024, at a CRPF camp in Jiribam district.
“Issue notice for the limited purpose of finding out the outcome of the ongoing investigation by the National Investigation Agency, returnable on 12.01.2026…,” a bench headed by Chief Justice Surya Kant said in an order.
The bench, which also had Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Atul S. Chandarkar, passed the directions after briefly hearing the arguments of advocate Vishwajeet Singh, appearing for the aggrieved family members.
The family members alleged that the victims were innocent and not involved in any extremist activities but were claimed to have been killed by the security personnel in an alleged fake encounter.
However, the Manipur government had earlier stated that the 10 suspected Kuki-Zo militants were killed by security forces during an attack on a police station and a nearby CRPF post in Jiribam. The investigations into the incident were subsequently taken over by the NIA.
According to the government, the incident occurred after the Borobekra police station and the Jakuradhor CRPF post came under attack from armed militants around 3pm on November 11, 2024.
CRPF constable Sanjeev Kumar had suffered a bullet injury in the exchange of fire. Borobekra police station is 27km from the district headquarters of Jiribam. Some Kuki-Zo organisations had claimed that 11 people from the community had been killed during the encounter.
On August 7, 2023, the Supreme Court had in the aftermath of the unprecedented ethnic violence constituted a committee of three former women judges to monitor the probes by the CBI and 42 state-constituted SITs into 11 FIRs, including the naked parading of two women. The court also ensured that the CBI team had officers from various states.
The court had said it was adopting the measures to “restore a sense of confidence” among the people of Manipur.
It was perhaps the first time in the CBI’s history that it had officers drawn from other states as part of a probe team and supervised by an officer from outside the state where the crime had occurred.
This is despite the fact that about 50 per cent of the CBI’s personnel is requisitioned on deputation from states and Union Territories by the investigating agency.