Pay Rs. 10 lakh to family of Manorama, SC tells govt.

The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the government to pay Rs. 10 lakh to the mother of Manipuri girl Thangjam Manorama, who was allegedly killed by Assam Rifles personnel in 2004.

A Bench of Justices T.S. Thakur and P.C. Ghosh told the government to pay the amount within four weeks.

The Bench admitted the petition challenging a Gauhati High Court order holding as valid the appointment of a commission of inquiry to go into the circumstances leading to Manorama’s brutal death.

In November, the inquiry report was handed over to the Supreme Court revealing the “brutal and merciless” torture of the girl by an Assam Rifles team.

After remaining under wraps for a decade, the report by the Judicial Inquiry Commission graphically revealed the last hours of “brutal and merciless torture” Manorama allegedly suffered at the hands of her captors before she was shot dead.

The Manorama case had led to widespread protests against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) and is partly attributed to calls for review of the law, especially by the Justice J.S. Verma Committee in 2013.

The report, submitted to the State government way back in December 2004, was never made public. The apex court had demanded it as part of a hearing on a PIL seeking probe into custodial deaths in the North-Eastern States.

“This is one of the most shocking custodial killing of a Manipuri village girl,” C. Upendra Singh, retired District and Sessions Judge, Manipur, who was Chairman of the Commission, wrote in the investigation report.

He describes how Manorama was picked up by “a strong-armed troops of 17th Assam Rifles” in the night between 10-11 July 2004 from her home in Imphal East District.

She was found dead with multiple gunshot injuries on genitals and thighs at Ngariyan Yairipok Road, hardly two km away from a police station.