Manipur women plea: Cops left them to mob

The SC called for evolving a broad mechanism to deal with violence against women in strife-torn Manipur. "How many FIRs have been registered since May for violence against women in Manipur," asks the SC.

The Centre said it had never requested trial in case related of the two women to be shifted to Assam. 

SC Senior advocate Indira Jaising says as far as the law is concerned, victims of rape don't talk about it. "They don't come out with their trauma. The first thing is to build confidence. Today, we don't know that if the CBI starts an investigation, women will come out. Women will be comfortable with talking to women about the incident instead of police. There should be a High Powered Committee with women from civil societies who have experience in dealing with survivors."

Senior advocate Indira Jaising tells Supreme Court that as per the Centre's status report, 595 FIRs have been registered. How many of these relate to sexual violence, and how many are arson, murder, there is no clarity, Jaising says.

Kapil Sibal, appearing for the two victim women, says the father and brother of one of them were killed. "We still don't have the bodies. Zero FIR was registered on May 18. Only when this court took cognisance, then something happened. So what confidence do we have? There will be many incidents like this. So what we want is an agency that is independent to probe the case."

Supreme Court says it will hear both sides briefly and will then take a call on the correct course of action. 

"We do not have an evidentiary record now. Let us hear the petitioners and then come back to Attorney General and Solicitor General," the court said.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the two victim women, tells Supreme Court that it is clear that police were collaborating with those who perpetrated the violence against the two women and police took these women to the crowd and abandoned them and the crowd did what they did.