SC hearing of Dec 8 & 9 likely to decide nature of probe against forces involved in 'fake encounters': EEVFM-HRA
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, December 05 2015 :
The Supreme Court (SC) hearing of December 8 and 9 is likely to take a final decision on the nature and type of investigation to be initiated on the cases of security personnel who have been accused of involving in "fake encounters." If the two-day hearing fails to take a decision on the issue, then the hearing may also be extended for one more day as a step to finally bring a conclusion, said Human Rights Alert (HRA) Executive Director Babloo Loitongbam on Saturday.
In a press meet held at HRA office, Babloo Loitongbam said that Extra-judicial Execution Victim Families Association (EEVFM) filed a petition in the Supreme Court in 2012 seeking the conduct of trials on cases of 1528 persons who were killed by security forces in Manipur.
Since then, the Apex Court has been conducting hearings on these "fake encounter" cases to provide justice to the family members of the victims, said Babloo.
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Out of the 1528 killings, the Supreme Court picked up 62 fake encounter cases for the hearings.
Of the 62 cases, central forces were involved in 11; combined team of both central and State forces in 26 cases and Manipur Police Commandos were involved 25 cases.
On the day of the last hearing on December 3, Attorney General who represented Union of India strongly placed before the bench that army personnel were killing the "enemies".
However, the bench asked the Counsel to define "enemies" in the next hearing.
Attending the press meet, EEVFM President Renu Takhellambam stated that victim families of fake encounter cases are eagerly waiting for the final decision by the Supreme Court.
As the hearings of the Apex Court have been progressing, it is likely that the families will soon get justice, added Renu.
She also appealed the victim families to lit lamps on the graves of the victims on the day of the Supreme Court's final hearing and to keep praying for a favourable decision.
It may be mentioned that Social Justice Bench comprising of Justice Madan Kokur and Justice U Lalit heard the arguments put forth by both the sides on December 3 last in Supreme Court.