The Supreme Court on Friday reserved its order on petitions filed by former and current army officials asking recusal of the current bench in the alleged Manipur fake encounter cases. Centre supported the petition filed by the cops.
WHAT WE KNOW
Former and current army officers had filed a petition for recusing Justices MB Lokur and UU Lalit from hearing Manipur fake encounter cases. The petition was filed after the judges had used the term ‘murderers’ in their statement to the case and its findings.
WHO SAID WHAT
CENTRE’S STAND: Attorney General KK Venugopal said that it would bring down the morale of armed forces in Manipur who, according to him, are facing hard time fighting insurgency in the state, PTI reported.
PETITIONERS: Senior Counsel Mukul Rohatgi appeared for the applicants saying that the said remarks passed by the Bench were prejudicial to the investigation and affected the morale of the Armed Forces, Bar and Bench reported.
The Bench said that the remark was not aimed at any particular individual, but was only a response to the CBI Director on the issue of charge sheets.
A petition filed by the security personnel on August 14 said that it will endanger national security if exposed to CBI and police prosecution in matters concerning operational encounters. They also asked the court to not dilute the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) so that no officer is harassed for arrests made.
THE CASE SO FAR
A public interest litigation plea is heard by the Supreme Court for investigation into 1,528 cases of alleged extra-judicial killings in Manipur. Following the investigation, in 2017 the court formed a Special Investigation Team comprising of Central Bureau of Investigation officials which later filed two charge sheets against police personnel in July this year.
The court after looking at the same had commented “According to you, there are 14 murderers in these cases and they are loafing around Manipur freely?” and “You have not arrested any of them? The CBI filed FIRs against dead persons who are victims. This is unbelievable.”
(With inputs from PTI)
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