The audio clips leaked online earlier this year, where Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh is purportedly heard implicating himself for his alleged role in the State’s ethnic conflict, have now reached the Supreme Court of India.
The Kuki Organisation for Human Rights Trust has now filed a petition in the top court seeking a court-monitored probe into the leaked audio tapes, which have already been submitted to the inquiry commission set up by the Union Home Ministry to probe the violence.
The petition, filed through advocate Prashant Bhushan, has said that the contents of the audio clips, “prima facie show the complicity and the involvement of the state machinery in violence against the Kuki-Zo community”.
The petition argued that since the purported conversations in the recording appear to point to a conspiracy involving the highest functionary of the State, the investigation cannot be done by agencies such as the Central Bureau of Investigation or the Enforcement Directorate. It sought a special investigative team with officers of “impeccable integrity” picked by the court to conduct the investigation.
The petition also called for the probe to be monitored by a retired judge of the Supreme Court. The writ petition was filed on October 9 and registered on Tuesday (October 22).
Citing several portions of the alleged conversation that feature in the leaked audio tapes that run for around 45-50 minutes, the petition said, “It is apparent from the aforementioned conversation that the Chief Minister of Manipur was instrumental in inciting, organising and thereafter centrally orchestrating the large-scale murder, destruction and other forms of violence against the Kuki-dominated areas in Manipur.”
In its petition, the organisation has said that the conversation contained in the recordings revealed a battery of offences under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita, the Arms Act, and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Parts of the audio clips had first started leaking on social media in August this year. On August 7, the Manipur government issued a statement claiming that the audio clips were “doctored” but also said that the Manipur Police had launched an investigation into the origins of what it called a “defamatory campaign” against the CM.
Published – October 23, 2024 11:12 pm IST