New Delhi: The Supreme Court expressed deep concern on Tuesday over the "complete breakdown of law and order" and "constitutional machinery" in Manipur, particularly in the context of unbridled ethnic violence. The court harshly criticized the state police for their "tardy and lethargic" investigation and demanded the personal presence of the Director General of Police (DGP) during a hearing on a series of petitions related to the mayhem in the northeastern state.


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Court Seeks Details On Incident Date, FIR Registration
 


Headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, the bench found the May 4 video showing two women being paraded naked to be deeply disturbing. It sought specific details from the state government about the date of the incident, the registration of both 'zero FIR' and regular FIR, and the number of accused named in the over 6,000 FIRs registered so far, as well as the actions taken for their arrest.


Manipur's Troubling Ethnic Violence And The Delayed Response
 


The tension in Manipur has escalated due to the persistent ethnic violence, exacerbated by the recent surfacing of the May 4 video. The court took note of the long delay in registering the FIR in connection with the video case. The Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre and Manipur government, informed the court that the state police had lodged a 'zero' FIR in the case of the two women being stripped and paraded naked. The police have arrested seven individuals, including a juvenile, in connection with the video case, and they recorded the statements of the women after the video emerged.


Supreme Court Intervenes to Prevent Further Victimization
 


During the hearing, the Supreme Court directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) not to proceed with recording the statements of the victim women on the same day as the court scheduled a batch of petitions related to the issue. The bench, which also comprises justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, took note of the submissions by lawyer Nizam Pasha, appearing for the two women, that the CBI has asked them to appear and depose before it during the day.


The top court had on Monday described as "horrendous" the video amid reports that the police handed the helpless women over to the rioting mob. The court also raised serious questions about the delayed registration of the FIR and proposed the idea of forming a committee of retired judges or a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to supervise the investigation.