LONDON/GENEVA: Two United Nations (UN) rights experts have urged New Delhi to complete thorough investigations into alleged killings by security forces in the State of Manipur after officials failed to meet a deadline set by the Supreme Court for inquiries into the cases.
“We are extremely concerned that the delay appears to be deliberate, undue and unreasonable, and we condemn this lack of progress,” the experts said in a joint statement.
The UN experts who issued the call are Ms Agnes Callamard, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and Mr Michel Forst, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.
The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council.
In 2012, civil society groups submitted more than 1,500 cases of alleged extrajudicial killings in Manipur to the Supreme Court of India but rights activists say the Indian government has hampered the investigation.
In many of the cases, deaths had been registered by the police as due to exchange of fire between security forces and armed groups or individuals but the families alleged the cases were ‘fake encounters’ and the individuals had been intentionally killed.
In 2013, a Commission appointed by the Supreme Court examined six cases selected at random and found in all cases that the conclusions of the security forces were not genuine. It found that none of the individuals killed had established criminal records or involvement in any wrongdoing as alleged by the government.
“The Supreme Court has since set three deadlines for investigations into a number of cases to be completed, and three times these deadlines have not been met,” the UN experts said in a statement received by this correspondent.
They said that in 2016, the Supreme Court set a deadline of 31 December 2017 for investigations to be completed in 89 cases but, by the deadline, only 12 cases had been registered.
The court set another deadline of 28 February 2018 for these cases but by 12 March only 42 cases had been registered, said UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner.
It said that finally the Supreme Court ordered investigations be completed and a report be filed by 30 June 2018 for 50 cases but the CBI not only failed to submit the required report but also indicated it had completed investigations into only four cases.
“Some of these families have been waiting decades for these cases to be fully investigated. It is unacceptable that the CBI is failing to meet these deadlines and appears to lack good faith,” said the experts.
They also expressed concern that the court orders applied only to a small number of cases, and it was unclear when investigations would be conducted into the remaining cases which run into the hundreds.
“The government of India has an obligation to ensure prompt, effective and thorough investigations into all allegations of potentially unlawful killings, and a failure to do so is a violation of its international obligations. Justice delayed is justice denied,” the UN experts added.
The call by UN expects comes just a few days after India was taken to task by High Commissioner on killings and grave violations in Indian occupied Kashmir.
The latest call by the UN experts showed the rife culture of systematic human rights abuses in India. The joint communication clearly reflects that the Supreme Court of India even couldn’t make Indian agencies answerable showing total disregard for judiciary.
