Alleged “fake encounter” cases: UN Rights Experts urge India to complete investigations

New Delhi: Two United Nations Rights Experts urged Indian authorities to complete investigations into alleged “fake encounter” cases which reportedly took place in Manipur.

According to the report published in Scroll.in, this statement was released after officials reportedly missed the deadline set by the apex court of India for inquiries into the cases.

The statement released by Office of the UN Commissioner for Human Rights said, “We are extremely concerned that the delay appears to be deliberate, undue and unreasonable, and we condemn this lack of progress”.

In a petition which was submitted to the Supreme Court in 2012, Extra Judicial Execution Victim Families Association had alleged that 1528 extra-judicial killings took place in the State of Manipur between 1979 and 2012. The petition also claimed that actions are not taken against the personnel who were involved in the alleged killings.

In 2013, a commission which was appointed by the Supreme Court of India had examined the cases. As per the commission, security forces resorted to firing based on information they received without cross-checking it.

Later, the Supreme Court had ordered CBI to conduct investigations into alleged extra-judicial killings and set deadline. The deadlines were 31st December 2017, 28th February 2018 and 30th June 2018. However, all the three deadlines are missed, UN experts claimed.

UN experts also claimed, “Some of these families have been waiting decades for these cases to be fully investigated. It is unacceptable that the CBI is failing to meet these deadlines and appears to lack good faith”.