Solicitor General Tushar Mehta representing the both the Union and the Manipur state government told the Supreme Court that most of the bodies lying unclaimed in the state amid the ongoing ethnic violence are of "infiltrators." His remarks came at the end of the half-day long hearing on Tuesday, wherein the top court pulled up the Manipur government and police over the delay in registering FIRs in the violence as it assembled to hear the petitions of the victims of the horrifying viral video in which two tribal women were seen paraded naked by a mob.
Senior Advocate Ranjit Kumar submitted that illegal immigrant influx from Mayanmar was a major factor contributing to the unrest in Manipur. To which, CJI D Y Chandrachud retorted, "but at the end of it, the people who are raped and murdered are our people right? Therefore we have to ensure that justice is done. That’s all”.
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Further, the SG told the three-judge bench, "I didn’t want to say this but most of the unclaimed dead bodies are those infiltrators who came with a particular design and got killed. I don’t wish to mention anything further and vitiate things..."
Appearing for tribal communities, senior advocate Colin Gonsalves said, “118 tribal bodies are in the morgue in Imphal. The bodies are unidentified for months. They are rotting. We cannot go there to identify them. No attempt is being made to help us identify.”
Efforts for identifying bodies
The top court directed the state to detail the efforts it has made so far in identifying the bodies. “These bodies cannot be kept indefinitely in a morgue,” the CJI said. The court further asked the Manipur government whether there was a nodal officer appointed to ensure that the dead bodies of the people in Manipur were identified and their bodies handed over to relatives.
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“Tell us how many bodies have been identified? How many residual bodies are there? What is being done to identify them?” the court asked the State government to present these details when it convenes on August 7 again.
Compensation for victims
The court also asked the government to address it on the aspect of compensation for the victims. “When we assemble on Monday, please tell us also, because that is also going to be one of the most important parts of the remit of the committee we are going to constitute, to ensure that compensation is made over to those who lost their homes, what is the package, how is it going to be disbursed, who will be the authorities of government which will be involved in the identification, quantification of claim, disbursement, etc,” the CJI said.
Advocate Colin Gonsalves claimed that even though the home minister had announced Rs 10 lakh per person who was killed, about a month ago, it is yet to be implemented. Meanwhile, Senior Advocate Jaideep Gupta said that he hopes the compensation efforts are not being aimed at "Myanmarese infiltrators".
"Like in every scheme for the payment of compensation, you have to identify the beneficiaries and they have to meet certain parameters," the CJI said in response.
