IMPHAL, March 15 - Extra-judicial Execution Victims� Families Association, Manipur (EEVAM) and Human Rights Alert (HRA) Manipur, on Thursday, sought a clarification from the Manipur Government regarding the alleged non-granting of prosecution sanction to the charge-sheeted security personnel.
The two human rights bodies alleged that even as CBI investigating into 42 alleged fake encounter cases in Manipur had completed investigations into 13 cases and submitted their final reports to the courts in the State, further proceedings of the cases have been blocked on the ground that Manipur Government has not granted prosecution sanction.
Mention may be made that, responding to a petition filed by EEVAM regarding 1,528 cases of extra-judicial killings in Manipur, the Supreme Court had ordered the CBI to investigate 42 selected incidents as a first step.
According to the two rights bodies, till date the CBI has completed 13 investigations and submitted their final reports to the courts. In nine out of the 13 cases, the CBI pressed charges including murder.
However, the criminal trials against those charge-sheeted security forces personnel have been blocked on the pretext that Manipur Government has not granted prosecution sanction, the two right bodies further alleged.
Addressing a news conference, Executive Director of HRA, Babloo Loitongbam and EEVAM secretary, Edina Yaikhom alleged that as a matter of fact, in some cases the chargesheets have been returned because of the delay in filing prosecution sanction.
The non-granting of the prosecution sanction by the present Manipur Government was against the promise that BJP had made during its election campaign in 2017 general elections to Manipur Assembly, they alleged.
They claimed that the BJP in the 2017 pre-poll �vision document� promised that if they come to power they would investigate the entire fake encounter cases and punish all the guilty personnel within one month.
�Two long years have gone by since they assumed power but the government is maintaining a stoic silence even on the issue of granting sanction to initiate prosecution, let alone punishing the guilty personnel,� Babloo said.
He asked, �The moot question today is, will the long and arduous struggle of the people to punish the security forces personnel responsible for the extra-judicial execution end in a whimper due to the government�s abdication of its own commitment?�
