The Supreme Court, hearing the Manipur viral video case, said on Monday that it was dealing with an "unprecedented magnitude" of violence against women in communal and sectarian strife. CJI Chandrachud said we cannot justify what happened in Manipur "by saying that this and this happened elsewhere".
"We are dealing with an unprecedented magnitude of violence against women in communal and sectarian strife. We cannot justify what happened in Manipur by saying that this and this happened elsewhere. Are you saying protect all women or don't protect anyone?" the CJI said.
The CJI's response came after advocate Bansuri Swaraj said similar incidents like Manipur also happened in West Bengal and Rajasthan. Swaraj said a video went viral of a panchayat poll candidate being stripped and paraded naked in Bengal.
The Supreme Court is hearing a clutch of petitions related to the Manipur ethnic violence, including the plea of the two tribal women who were paraded naked in May. The two women have sought a fair inquiry and protection of their identities.
During the hearing, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the two tribal women, sought a probe by an independent agency into the case.
"What we need is an agency where the victims will have confidence. Let a SIT be formed and then let them inform how many FIRs have been registered. The Union and state does not know even now how many FIRs have been lodged. This is the sad state," Sibal said.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the Centre had no objection to the Supreme Court monitoring the investigation.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising said a high powered committee comprising of women from civil society should be constituted for confidence building measures.
"Victims of rape do not talk about it, they are in trauma. The first step is to instill confidence in them and help them tell their story. First is confidence building mechanism by a high powered committee...woman driven from civil society. Uma Chakravarty, Syeda Hameed, Roshni Goswami etc they are all rooted to the issue in the community...let them submit a report to you," Jaising said.
On July 20, the Supreme Court had taken suo moto cognisance of the issue after the video of two women in Manipur went viral. The Supreme Court had said it was "deeply disturbed" by the video and the use of women as instruments for perpetrating violence was "simply unacceptable in a constitutional democracy".
The court had sought the responses of the Centre and Manipur government on the steps taken by it to book the perpetrators seen in the video.
On Thursday, the Centre, in an affidavit, said the CBI would probe the video incident and asserted that the government had "zero tolerance towards any crimes against women".
The affidavit, filed by the Home Ministry, also urged the apex court to transfer the trial of the case outside Manipur for its completion in a time-bound manner. The Centre requested the SC to pass directions to transfer the probe to a state other than Manipur.
Seven persons have been arrested in the case so far. "They have been booked for various offences including rape and murder," the affidavit further said.
Detailing the steps taken by the government, the affidavit said several police teams were formed to arrest the culprits and an additional Superintendent of Police (SP)-rank officer was entrusted to investigate the viral video case, PTI reported.
The Centre also informed the court that the Manipur government had formed "district psychological support teams for providing mental health intervention at various relief camps".
"To prevent repetition of such incidents, reporting of all such cases to the Director General of Police (DGP) by the police station in-charge of the jurisdiction has been made mandatory," it further said.