Sunday marks three years since ethnic clashes broke out in Manipur but the Centre-appointed three-member Commission of Inquiry (CoI) is yet to submit its findings, after missing four deadlines.
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 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 Commission has to decide whom to summon out of all the applications received so far,” said an official aware of the matter.
Panel members were not available for a comment. Officials privy to the matter said the Commission members, who were supposed to visit Manipur in February, postponed their visit due to the fresh outbreak of violence.
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.
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.
