During the hearing today, Attorney General R Venkataramani volunteered to personally monitor the CBI probe so that there are partisan political intervention pleas before the apex court.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the two women, said that the police were hand in glove with the perpetrators of the crime.
“It is clear that police were collaborating with those who perpetrated the violence against the two women. The police took the two women to the crowd. They took them to the crowd, abandoned them and then what happened has happened,” he said.
Sibal contended that a CBI probe will not inspire confidence and the matter should be probed by an SIT.
“What we need is an agency where the victims will have confidence. How will CBI probe and how will the AG supervise. Let an SIT be formed and then let them inform how many FIRs have been registered. Union government and State do not know even now how many FIRs lodged! That is the sad state of affairs,” he said.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that the Central government has no objection to the Supreme Court monitoring the CBI probe.
“Government of India shares the concern of Mr. Sibal. Government of India has no objection to the Supreme court monitoring the investigation. This shows the transparency,” SG Mehta submitted.
Senior Advocate Indira Jaising submitted that a confidence building mechanism must be carried out so that all such rape survivors come forward to speak out.
“I am more on the mechanism. There may be a need to lodge new FIRs. Victims of rape do not talk about it, they are in trauma. The first step is to instill confidence in them and help them tell their story. They are at the moment traumatised and terrorised. First is confidence building mechanism,” she said.
She, therefore, suggested having a high powered committee to carry out this task.
“Woman driven from civil society – Uma Chakravarty, Syeda Hameed, Roshni Goswami etc. They are all rooted to the issue in the community.. let them submit a report to you. Women can speak to them and not police officers. We need to install confidence in them (survivors),” Jaising submitted.
Senior Advocate Colin Gonsales also sought constitution of an SIT.
“We are asking for a SIT. We have named three retired DGPs from UP, one retired from Assam. They are known to be independent and they will work independent of any political interference. all journalists who went to cover were informed that women were under protective cover of the police.. and then they were taken to the crowd.. there is a force who are higher up and coordinating all this.. SIT has to unearth the larger conspiracy in Manipur of how rapes are happening in collective and coordinated fashion,” he stated.
The CBI should not be in the scene at all, he underlined.
Advocate Shobha Gupta also echoed similar sentiments.
“There has to be an SIT for confidence building measures. A team should be sent from here under aegis of SC- to meet and get victims’ first hand statements. On basis of that FIRs should be noted and this was done in Delhi riots case also,” she said.
Source: Barandbench
