CBI chief Alok Verma arrives at Supreme Court in connection to Manipur fake encounter case, in New Delhi

NEW DELHI: Hours after the Supreme Court lashed out at CBI director Alok Verma for delay in investigating alleged fake encounter cases in Manipur, the agency claimed that it was facing difficulties in terms of availability of documents from Army and central paramilitary forces due to which the probe was delayed.

CBI spokesperson Abhishek Dayal said that they are probing 41 cases related to the alleged extrajudicial killings in Manipur but are yet to get complete records from local police, Army and paramilitary forces. Most of the documents have reached CBI in June this year but a lot of documents are still not available or missing.

The agency has so far registered 27 cases and filed two chargesheets. In one of the chargesheets, CBI has found that local police in its probe had falsely claimed that the victim had a fight with militants in which he was beaten up severely and succumbed to those injuries in custody.

It has chargesheeted a sub-inspector of Manipur police and others in the case while in the second chargesheet, a deputy SP ranked officer has been named for alleged murder. In all, 14 persons have been chargesheeted by CBI in these cases. Dayal said that the chargesheets are supported by scientific evidence, police station records, forensic, medical and autopsy reports and statements of witnesses.

However, no Army or paramilitary officer has been named in the cases so far. Officials said that some of the cases it is probing are very old, with one case of fake encounter registered 27 years back.

"We haven't got complete records and relevant documents from forces like local police, Army's Maratha Infantry, Assam Rifles, CRPF and BSF," an officer said.

The agency officials said it is likely to file its final report in five more cases by August end.

The agency started its regular procedure of taking over investigation by re-registering police FIRs but was directed by the apex court in February this year to stop this practice and register fresh FIRs, they said.

Registering a fresh FIR requires lot of legal applications as one must ascertain the accused and possible accused as well, officials said.

