3 years on, Manipur panel yet to submit probe findings on 2023 clashes

Three years after ethnic clashes in Manipur, the Commission of Inquiry, tasked to investigate, has missed four deadlines and is still collecting evidence.

Sunday marks three years since ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur but the Centre-appointed three-member Commission of Inquiry (CoI) -- which is probing the cause and lapses that triggered the violence that killed at least 270 people till now -- is yet to submit its findings, after missing four deadlines.

Sunday marks three years since ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur (Reuters)

The panel was set up on June 4, 2023 -- roughly a month after clashes erupted between the Meitei and the Kuki communities on May 3, 2023. According to the government notification issued at the time, the panel was mandated to submit its report to the Centre “as soon as possible but not later than six months from the date of its first sitting.”

The panel received four extensions so far, with its latest deadline to submit the report set for May 20, 2026. The earlier deadlines were on September 13, 2024, December, 3 2024, May, 20, 2025, and December 16, 2025.

“The inquiry is still in process and will take a long time. Eyewitnesses and victims have to be called to New Delhi to record their statements. The CoI office in Imphal has already collected the documents and other evidence related to the ethnic clashes. The document collection process is over. There are thousands of statements sent by people from both sides. The Commission has to decide whom to summon out of all the applications received so far,” said an official aware of the matter, who asked not to be named.

People aware of the matter confirmed that till date, the commission was yet to summon or record statements of key officials such as the then police chief P Doungel, then chief secretary Rajesh Kumar or then chief minister Biren Singh, who were in charge of the state when the clashes began.

“To identify the dereliction of duty, it is necessary to record their statements because they were in charge of all verticals. None of them have been summoned because the CoI was collecting evidence and all the other paperwork. All people key to understanding the lapses and the causes will be summoned. The statements will be recorded in the Delhi office as it is feasible for Kuki community people to travel to Delhi instead of Imphal,” a second official said, confirming that the three were not summoned till date.

The three officials did not comment on the matter but people aware of the matter said that none of them have been summoned even once by the commission.

Manipur is now helmed by a new government headed by chief minister Yumnam Khemchand Singh, a Meitei leader. He has two deputies -- Kuki lawmaker Nemcha Kipgen and Naga lawmaker Losi Dikho -- in an attempt to stitch together a unity government. But sporadic violence has continued to engulf almost every community across the state.

Last month, at least 11 people—including two children and a Border Security Force personnel —were killed in separate incidents related to both Kuki-Meitei and the Kuki-Naga clashes.

The panel was tasked to find the answers to four key questions: causes and spread of violence; sequence of events leading to it; lapses or dereliction of duty on the part of responsible authorities; and adequacy of administrative measures taken to deal with the violence. The panel’s headquarters is functioning from the first floor of a hotel in Imphal, but it also operates a camp office at the Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in New Delhi.

Earlier this year, after former panel chairperson Ajai Lamba resigned on personal grounds, the Centre appointed former Supreme Court justice Balbir Singh Chauhan as chairperson.The other two members are retired bureaucrat Himanshu Shekhar Das and retired police officer Aloka Prabhakar.