CBI Director in Manipur, reviews probe into cases of violence

The Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Praveen Sood, reached Imphal on Monday, 18 December and held meetings with senior officials over the ongoing probe conducted by the central agency into several cases of ethnic violence.

Officials said that Sood reached Guwahati on Monday morning and in the afternoon, he went to Imphal, where he was received by Manipur DGP Rajiv Singh and other senior officials.

Sources said that the CBI chief reviewed the developments made by the Special Investigation Teams (SITs) in the investigation into six cases of violence in Manipur.

The cases include the horrific video of two young women being paraded naked on a road by a mob in Manipur on May 4, the video of which had been widely circulated on social media, drawing widespread condemnation and demand for stringent actions.

The state government has handed over several other cases to the CBI relating to various crimes that took place during the ethnic violence that broke out in Manipur on 3 May.

On 9 December, the CBI had filed a charge sheet against nine accused before the special judge of the CBI court in Guwahati in an ongoing investigation into a case.

The officials of the CBI and SIT are facing protests by the local organisations as the protesters have alleged that the probe is not being conducted in a balanced manner.

The over seven-month long ethnic conflict between non-tribal Meitei and tribal Kuki communities has so far claimed 182 lives and displaced more than 70,000 people on both sides with thousands of people taking shelter in Mizoram besides the different districts of Manipur.