The Manipur High Court on Friday directed the chief secretary of Manipur to submit a report of what action has been taken for providing immediate relief in case of injured students and other persons due to alleged crackdown by the security personnel. The report has to be submitted within a week.
The HC issued the direction after a public interest litigation was filed by retired judge Aribam Noutuneshwari Devi regarding the “disproportionate and excessive use of force, atrocities and brutal crackdown on students community which needs to be stopped immediately.”
The PIL also stated that the situation in Imphal is at its worst scenario and needs to be tackled with due care and understanding.
The retired judge prayed for restraining the respondents from any excessive acts of the state and the central security forces. Further, she prayed for directing the respondents to initiate judicial enquiry on brutal actions towards innocent students.
The PIL stated that after learning about the murder of the two students, who are of tender age, many innocent students started coming out on the streets protesting peacefully, demanding justice in full school uniforms. But the armed forces of the state and central government responded with repressive means with reckless and inappropriate use of lathi-charge, firing of tear gas shells, pellets, live rounds etc. leading to the serious injuries of many innocent students, it stated.
Although the state government has closed the schools, many students in school uniforms came out on the streets and peacefully protested, demanding justice, it mentioned. But the Central and the state armed security forces, instead of using minimum force and by violating produced established by law, responded the peaceful protests of the students again with harsh and repressive means by beating mercilessly, firing with tear gas shells, pellets/bullets, live rounds etc. which are not permissible as per the relevant laws of the land, the PIL stated.
Consequently, so many students sustained serious injuries after being directly hit on their body like shoulder, legs, head, abdomen etc.
The unruly acts of the security forces led to serious injury of more than 100 students and are admitted at various Hospitals including RIMS, JNIMS, Raj Medicity, Shija Hospital, Advance Hospital, Asian Hospital etc.
The HC also directed the petitioner to submit documents with evidence within one week.
