Top court to hear Manipur assault video matter today

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday will consider the Union government's request to transfer the trial of the case relating to the May 4 assault of two women by a mob - a viral video of which sparked an outcry outside Manipur and direct for its conclusion within six months of filing of the charge sheet by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)

A bunch of petitions concerning the ethnic violence in the northeastern state were to be taken up by the top court on July 28, but indisposition of Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud due to bad health on that day deferred the hearing.

The bench, which includes justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, will also take up a fresh petition which is directly linked to the incident on May 4.

While identities of the petitioners have been concealed (they have been mentioned as X and Y), the listing records show that the petition is in connection with first information report (FIR) numbered as (110) (6) (2023), registered at Nongpok Sekmai Police Station - the jurisdiction in which B Phainom village is located.

In this FIR, the village head had identified the attackers as those from Meitei groups, stating that three Kuki women were stripped, paraded naked, assaulted, one of them gang-raped, and her father and brother murdered by a mob after the family was snatched from the custody of a police team.