New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the CBI must register an FIR in each of the 98 cases of alleged extra-judicial killings in Manipur by police and security forces and said it wasn't the investigating agency's business to decide whether a case is made out or not.
"That's not your business whether a case is made out or not. It is for the courts to decide," a bench comprising Justice Madan B. Lokur Justice and U.U. Lalit told additional solicitor-general Maninder Singh during a hearing.
The bench made the observation after S.C. Agrawal, DIG in-charge of the CBI special investigation team, and Singh tried to tell the court that delay in registering the FIRs was on account of the CBI's preliminary investigations to examine whether a case is made out or not.
Last week, the court had expressed dismay that the CBI had failed to register FIRs in all the 98 cases in Manipur and summoned the DIG in-charge of the CBI special investigation team to be present in court on Monday.
The bench on Tuesday told CBI that it was unfortunate that the agency had so far registered only 12 FIRs. The earlier directive said FIRs should be registered in all the 98 cases by December 31, 2017, and investigation should have been completed. Singh said the CBI was examining voluminous documents and materials in the cases and had to record the statements of various witnesses afresh.
However, Justice Lalit pointed out that these 98 cases were entrusted to the CBI's team by the bench on the basis of certain prima facie findings made by Gauhati High Court, NHRC and the Justice Santosh Hegde Committee, all three of which had adversely commented upon the role of the police/security personnel in these killings. "On all these cases there has been a foundational analysis...FIR needs to be registered in every single case," Justice Lalit said.
The bench later granted two weeks' time to the CBI to complete the registration of FIRs in all the remaining cases. The next hearing is scheduled for February 12.
Justice Lokur, who headed the bench, also said in accordance with its earlier directive, the Centre and state government would render full cooperation to the team to record evidence of witnesses, including police and security personnel.
During the hearing, senior advocate Colin Gonzalves objected to Maninder Singh appearing for both the CBI and the Centre. He said the ASG cannot appear for the CBI, which is a prosecuting agency and also the Centre, whose security personnel are accused of carrying out the extra-judicial killings.
Singh however, clarified that he was only appearing for CBI and not the Centre.
On July 14 last year, the court had directed the CBI to probe 98 cases of extra-judicial killings in Manipur by state police and security personnel.