Manipur: CBI team reaches Imphal to investigate the killing of two students

Young men and women shouted slogans as they walked to the city centre from various places, many holding placards denouncing the twin killings.

"We are holding a peaceful protest against the kidnapping and killing of fellow students,” said student leader Thokchom Khogendro Singh. Everyone had been asked to wear black badges as a mark of protest.

CBI's focus

Meanwhile, the focus of the agency in Imphal will be to identify the scene of crime, retrieve the bodies besides and nail the perpetrators, the sources said. The team will meet senior police and government officials and go through local intelligence about the tragic incident, they said.

The state government in consultation with the home ministry referred the matter to the CBI which immediately dispatched a team of officials led by the agency's second in command Bhatanagar to probe the crime.

Another senior officer, joint director Ghanshyam Upadhyay, who is camping in Imphal, also joined the team on arrival, the sources said.

The team comprises officers who have expertise in special crime, crime scene recreation, interrogation and technical surveillance. It will also have experts from the CBI's elite Central Forensic Science Laboratory, the sources said.

Police had previously said the whereabouts of the two were not known and their mobile phones were found switched off.

The last location of their mobile phones was traced to Lamdan, near the winter flower tourist spot in Churachandpur district, police had said.

Police force deployed

In lieu of the protests, the Manipur Police, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel were deployed in strength all across the Imphal Valley.

Anger over official apathy

Meanwhile, the women's wing of the Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF), the apex Kuki body too staged a demonstration in Churachandpur in south Manipur.

The Kukis were angry over the delay in ordering an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the killing and rape of tribals during the nearly five months of ethnic violence in Manipur.

ITLF women's wing convenor Mary Jone, who led the protests in Churachandpur, wondered why such inquiries were not initiated into the killings and rapes of Kukis.

"This rally is against the prompt action of the CBI into the killing of the two teenagers. There were many incidents of tribal women being raped, paraded naked and our men being killed but no CBI inquiry has been conducted,” she said.

"Why this bias against us? We demand a CBI inquiry into incidents of violence against tribals," she said.

In a post on X, Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh had said on Tuesday: "In light of the distressing news that emerged yesterday regarding the tragic demise of the missing students, I want to assure the people of the state that both the state and central government are closely working together to nab the perpetrators." He said the presence of the CBI officers in the state "underscores the commitment of our authorities to swiftly resolve this matter".

Trouble-torn Imphal

On Tuesday night, RAF personnel and locals clashed over the twin murders, prompting the paramilitary forces to fire tear gas and rubber bullets at the protesters. Some 45 people were injured.

Although the state government declared a holiday for schools on Wednesday, students of some Imphal-based institutions vowed to gather at their schools.

The government has re-imposed a ban on Internet mobile services with immediate effect till 7.45 pm of October 1. The ban was recently lifted after being imposed earlier for four months.

More than 175 people have been killed and several hundred injured since ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur on May 3.

(With agency inputs)