Manipur SITs have secured charge-sheets in only 6% of 3,023 case as yet: Report

Nineteen months after ethnic violence engulfed Manipur, only 6% of the 3,023 registered cases have seen chargesheets filed by the 42 Special Investigation Teams (SITs) established by the Supreme Court.

According to a report reviewed by The Hindu, the SITs have filed chargesheets in just 192 cases involving grave offences such as rape, murder, sexual assaults, arson, and looting.

Established in Aug 2023 by enlisting police officers from various states, the SITs have made significant progress. By Nov 20, they had arrested 384 individuals, identified 742 suspects, and examined 11,901 witnesses. So far, 574 accused individuals have been formally charged.

Additionally, the SITs recovered 501 stolen weapons and seized 13,464 rounds of ammunition from looted police armouries.

However, it remains unclear whether trials have commenced in any of these cases.

Among the SITs, one led by Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials investigated the harrowing May 4, 2023, assault of two Kuki-Zo women who were paraded naked by a mob. A chargesheet against six accused, including a juvenile, was filed in October 2023. This case was registered with the CBI in July 2023 after a viral video exposed the incident.

Despite the CBI filing the chargesheet in a Guwahati court last year, trials are yet to begin as the Supreme Court’s directives are still pending, according to a legal expert monitoring the case who requested anonymity.

Case Categorization

Following the Supreme Court's orders, the SITs were divided into six specialized groups: one handling murders and heinous crimes, another dealing with sexual offences against women, and four focusing on arson, looting, and related crimes.

The districts of Imphal East, Imphal West, Kakching, Bishnupur, Churachandpur, and Kangpokpi were assigned six SITs each, while Thoubal and Tengnoupal received three each.

The report highlighted that the SITs are currently probing 126 murder cases, nine sexual offence cases, and 2,888 incidents involving loot, arson, and property crimes.

Following the violent clashes between the tribal Kuki-Zo and the majority Meitei community on May 3, 2023, over 4,500 weapons were stolen from police armouries. As of now, about 1,800 of these weapons have been recovered or surrendered by civilians.