The Supreme Court directed the CBI not to interact and record statements of the two rape survivors of the Manipur viral video sexual assault case until it completed the hearing on Tuesday.
A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud orally issued the order upon an urgent mentioning made by Mohd Nizamuddin Pasha on behalf of the two women.
He said that since the top court is scheduled to hear the case at 2 pm on Tuesday so it would be better that the CBI does not record their statement prior to the hearing.
To this, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said, "If the CBI does not record a statement promptly in this case, then Kapil Sibal will blame us for inaction and will say that we are not doing our duty."
Sibal had represented the two women before the top court on Monday.
The top court on Monday had said that crimes against women are taking place across the country and that is part of the social reality, however, what has happened in Manipur cannot be excused.
It questioned the Centre and the Manipur government on why it took the police 14 days to register an FIR in connection with women being paraded naked and sexually assaulted in the strife-torn state.
It also sought to know the breakdown of the cases. The court asked when there are 6000 FIRs, what is bifurcation of these FIRs – how many of these involve crimes against women, how many involve serious offences such as murder, rioting, arson, out of these how many were recorded as zero FIRs, etc.