CBI sets up team to probe Manipur killings

The CBI has constituted a special team to investigate cases of alleged extra-judicial killings by the Army, the Assam Rifles and the Manipur Police in insurgency-hit Manipur, an official said on Tuesday.

"A five-member team led by a Superintendent of Police was formed last week to investigate these cases," a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official said.

The agency's move comes days after the Supreme Court on July 14 directed CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma to appoint a team of officers to investigate the killings.

The apex court ruling came on a public interest litigation for a probe and compensation with regard to what it said were 1,528 extra-judicial killings in Manipur from 2000 to 2012.

On April 20, the Army told the apex court that it cannot be subjected to FIRs over anti-militancy operations in insurgency-hit areas like Jammu and Kashmir and Manipur, while alleging local bias in judicial inquiries conducted against it in these states, which tarnished its image.

In July last year, the apex court had directed a thorough probe into the alleged "staged killings" in Manipur, and said the use of excessive or retaliatory force by armed forces or police was not permissible in disturbed areas under the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.

--IANS

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