FIR Against Fact Finders in Manipur

A First Information Report (FIR) has been registered in Imphal, Manipur against the members of a fact-finding committee that recently released its report after a visit to the violence affected areas, and relief camps in the state.

The delegation included Communist Party of India leader and National Federation of Indian Women General Secretary Annie Raja. Apart from Raja, the other members are Nisha Siddhu from the NIFW and lawyer Deeksha Dwivedi.

The FIR was lodged a day after they had termed the violence in Manipur “state-sponsored”. In response over 1,500 women, concerned citizens and human rights organisations have condemned the FIR registration.

The signatories demanded an immediate closure of the FIR and “initiation of action against the police who indulged in this malicious act of registering a FIR against the fact-finding team”. The FIR was registered at Imphal police station on July 8 based on a complaint filed by an individual named S. Liben Singh.

The sections under which the case has been registered include 121-A (conspiring to commit offences of waging war against India or against the state), 124 (Assaulting President, Governor etc. with intent to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power); 153/153-A/ 153-B (provocation with intention to cause riot, promoting enmity between different groups and imputations prejudicial to national integration), 499 (defamation), 504 & 505(2) (insult to provoke breach of peace, false statement, rumour etc with intention to create enmity between different classes), and section 34 (common intention).

In his complaint, Singh had referred to a press meet addressed by the three-member committee on July 1 in Imphal and claimed that they referred to the violence in Manipur as state-sponsored “without any conclusive evidence”.

“Such a statement is a conspiracy to overthrow a democratically elected government by instigating people to wage war against the government…

“The above statements made by the accused persons by spreading fake and false news while formal inquiry is pending has instigated the general public to act against the Government and created enmity amongst the communities and they are adding fuel to the fire at this volatile situation of the state,” the complaint states.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the CPI also condemned the registration of an FIR, describing it as being malicious and vindictive. “The FIR is clearly vindictive and malicious without any element of truth in it. This invocation of criminal proceedings against reputed women leaders is a clear indication of the abuse of power by the local component of the double-engine government,” the CPI said in a statement.

Terming the “criminalisation of the democratic process of fact-finding an assault on constitutional ethos”, the party said, “The double-engine government of the BJP seems keen on escaping all manners of transparency and accountability to the citizenry of this country.”

It also condemned various other “malicious” FIRs against tribal students’ organisations and their functionaries, rights activists and intellectuals like Professor Kham Khan Suan Hausing of the University of Hyderabad.

Earlier, the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Imphal East had issued summons to Professor Kham Hausing based on a complaint filed by Imphal resident Moirangthem Manihar Singh for statements made in a news interview on June 17.

The complaint alleged that he had made derogatory statements on “holy religious sites associated historically with the Meitei community” and false statements “which accuses and defames the Meitei community”.

On Sunday, Manipur Home Commissioner T. Ranjit Singh had also written to the DGP requesting “stern action” against members of the Zomi Students’ Federation who had published a book called “The Inevitable Split – Documents on State-Sponsored Ethnic Cleansing in Manipur, 2023”. The 96-page book had been published in May by the Zomi Students’ Federation and Kuki Students’ Organisation.

“The Home Commissioner requested the DGP to register an FIR against the author and organisation, ban its further publication and to take “appropriate steps to submit a detailed proposal to forfeit and issue necessary search warrants against the book”.

“The action as well as the inaction of the governments in the current crisis displays the RSS-BJP combine’s pro-corporate agenda. The experiences of Gujarat are before us of how these right-wing forces in power have made use of the fissures in society to push through with their divisive anti-people policies,” the party said.

Meanwhile, a joint delegation from Communist Party of India (Marxist) and CPI visited Manipur and the state’s chief minister Biren Singh “is a major impediment in restoring peace and normalcy” in Manipur.

The delegation included Bikashranjan Bhattacharya, John Brittas [CPI(M)], Binoy Viswam, K. Subbarayan and P. Sandosh Kumar [CPI] visited refugee camps and different locations in the valley and hill for three days from July 6.

“The dominant view was that the state administration collapsed completely with the Chief Minister losing legitimacy and credibility. Therefore, the continuation of the Chief Minister Biren Singh in office is untenable,” a statement by CPIM stated. The statement added that people are pained and hurt at the “deafening silence of the Prime Minister about the situation”.

The delegation also called on the Governor Anusuiya Uikey and conveyed its view.

“The head of the state was urged to take all possible steps to restore the faith of all sections. She said she was distraught at the events and confided that she never met with such a situation in her life,” the statement further said.

“The delegation noted that, though 60,000 armed personnel from different forces are deployed, they are not effective in the absence of functional civil administration. Thousands of Government employees belonging to Kukis and Meiteis have fled the valley and the hills respectively, crippling the administration,” it added.

They demanded the Centre and the State administration should make all efforts to rally all sections, declare urgent measures for the rehabilitation and mitigate the sufferings of the people.