New Delhi: The investigation into a case involving two women being paraded naked in conflict-torn Manipur was passed to the CBI by the Centre on Thursday, informing the Supreme Court that the government had "zero tolerance" for any crimes against women.
In a petition submitted by its secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, the Ministry of Home Affairs pleaded with the top court to transfer the trial in the case—in which seven people have been detained so far—outside of Manipur.
The details of the sexual assault on two women came out in the open last week through the leak of a video of the horrific incident.
The top court, on July 20, took note of the incident and said it was “deeply disturbed” by the video and the use of women as instruments for perpetrating violence was “simply unacceptable in a constitutional democracy”.
A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud had directed the Centre and Manipur government to take immediate remedial, rehabilitative and preventive steps and apprise it of the action taken.
Filing its response, the Centre said, “The Government of Manipur vide letter dated 26.07.2023 has recommended to Secretary, DOP&T for entrusting the case to CBI for further investigation, which has been duly recommended to Secretary, DOP&T by MHA vide letter dated 27.07.2023. The investigation shall thus, be transferred to CBI.”
With PTI inputs