The Manipur High Court on Wednesday issued notices to top bureaucrats and police officers of the Manipur government, the Union Home Secretary, the General Officer Commander in-charge of the Indian Army’s Eastern Command, and an Inspector-General of the Assam Rifles (South) in a contempt petition filed by a Meitei body.
The International Meeteis Forum (IMF) had filed a contempt petition before the Manipur High Court alleging that a mob of “Kuki men and women” coming from Churachandpur had vandalised and razed government structures inside the complex where they intended to bury 35 of their dead despite the presence of the 9th Assam Rifles, the CRPF, and other Central paramilitary forces.
The petitioners said that this had happened as tensions were rising and violence flared up again in the buffer zone between Churachandpur and Bishnupur districts on August 5. The IMF went on to say that this was a violation of the High Court’s 6 a.m. order on August 3, which directed all security forces to ensure status quo on the proposed burial site.
A Bench of Acting Chief Justice MV Muralidharan and Justice A Guneshwar Sharma admitted the petition on Wednesday and issued notices to all government respondents, posting the matter for next hearing on August 30.
The IMF is the same body that had filed a PIL on August 2, seeking to stop the planned mass burial of Kuki-Zo people, following which the high court had stayed the burial.
The petitioners had contended that the proposed burial site at S. Boljang of Haolai Khopi village, Churachandpur, was inside a government complex where a sericulture farm is run and that the land is government-notified.
They went on to say that on August 5, Kuki-Zo people had allegedly “wilfully and deliberately bulldozed the standing structure of Sericulture Farm into smithereens… crossing various bunkers and outpost of 9 Assam Rifles (AR), CRPF and other central paramilitary forces along the way”.
The petitioners claimed that they had procured drone visuals of the site and found that the structures had been razed, further arguing that the Manipur Police, the Manipur government, the Union government, the Army, and the organisers of the proposed burial had committed contempt by wilfully disobeying the court’s orders.
After having postponed the planned burial on August 3, the Indigenous Tribal Leaders’ Forum (ITLF) had said they had done it on a request from the Home Ministry. Sources said that the reason for the Kuki-Zo community insisting on the site in question was its location. Because it was located along the highway leading into Churachandpur district, it would be appropriate to have it there so that it is the first thing one sees while entering the district, they argued.
