IMPHAL, Nov 11 - As per the directive of the Supreme Court (SC), a Special Investigation Team (SIT) is likely to investigate as many as 62 encounter cases in Manipur. The next argument on the Justice N Santosh Hedge Commission � appointed by the SC to investigate encounter killings in the State � report has been fixed on November 19 by a Social Judicial Bench of the apex court.
This was informed by Renu Takhellambam, president of the Extra-Judicial Execution Victim Families� Association, Manipur (EEVFAM), in a press conference held at Human Rights Alert (HRA) office at Kwakeithel in Imphal recently.
She said that the full argument of the Justice Hedge Commission was held on November 4 last before the Social Justice Bench of Justice Madal Luker and Justice U Lalit. She added that EEVFAM submitted a report to the apex court on October 29 after the Court asked to all the concerned parties to submit their reports.
During their submission, the EEVFAM had asked the court to form an SIT under the supervision of the SC and investigate at least 62 cases of �fake encounters� in the State.
Among the 62 cases, six cases are under Justice N Santosh Hedge Commission, 11 cases have already been investigated by lower court under the directive of the High Court and seven cases were already reported by respected judicial commission, she said.
She added that the EEVFAM has been seeking directive to modify the Social Welfare Scheme to suit and extend help to the families of the said encounter victims in Manipur.
It is worth mentioning that after a petition filed by the EEVFAM, a commission was formed to investigate the six cases of alleged extra judicial killing by the apex court under the chairmanship of Justice N Santosh Hedge. The Commission submitted its report to the apex court on 2013 terming those as �fake encounter�. Senior Advocate of the SC, Colin Gonsalves, is the legal counsel of the EEFVAM.
