IMPHAL, January 7: Families of the Involuntarily Disappeared Association, Manipur and Human Right Alert have, today, withdrawn their Public Interest Litigation filed last year with the liberty to file a fresh one as and when required.
This was stated by HRA director Babloo Loitongbam in a press meet at the Manipur Press Club this afternoon.
He said a division bench constituted by Chief Justice Luxmi Kant Mohapatra and Justice Nobin Singh of the Manipur High Court heard the PIL as item number 2 at court number 1. During the hearing, the Advocate General placed relevant government files disclosing that the State cabinet has decided to hand over the matter to CBI on December 29 last year.
FIDAM has noticed that even after nine days, the government has not issued the gazette notification which is the first step towards handling over the case to the CBI, he said, adding that even after due notification and consent by the State government, the Central government under section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment Act should also issue a notification under section 5 of the same Act.
The court asked us to withdraw the PIL as the state government has decided to hand over the whole investigation to the CBI. In that condition, we withdrew the PIL today, he said.
Babloo said many prosecution sanction were demanded from the Union Home Ministry in relation with cases of disappearance of people after their abduction by security forces. But the Home Ministry has informed us to take permission from the Defence Ministry.
They are yet to respond to a prosecution sanction demand made in the case of Yayep Ali who disappeared in 1999. Regarding this particular case, the High Court had asked for an enquiry on May 18, 2005 but till date there has been no finding as reported by his brother, Md Baniyamin. So there is no hope even after the promise of a CBI investigation because this matter will cool off and finish without any real finding.