The Supreme Court on Thursday set aside a Manipur High Court order that had directed the CBI to trace in “eight weeks” a rape convict who has reportedly fled the country.

The apex court felt that the directive was “unnecessary” because the state had constituted a special team to track him down.

A bench of Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice Kotiswar Singh, however, said the Manipur government was free to seek the Centre’s assistance to track Timothi L. Changsan and the central government would provide assistance if sought.

Changsan has been convicted of the rape of minors at the North East Children’s Home at Churachandpur in 2019. The court passed the order while allowing an appeal filed by the CBI challenging two orders passed by the high court on October 4 last year and January 10 this year directing the agency to trace the convict. The high court had passed the directions while taking suo motu cognisance of media reports.

Challenging the directions, the CBI had filed the appeal in the apex court contending that the agency had not been impleaded as a party to the case.

During the arguments on Thursday, the CBI objected to the directive, contending that it was a premier investigating agency and the order for tracking a convict ought not to have been passed by the high court. “…We find that the directions issued by the high court to the CBI were unnecessary. Therefore, the directions are set aside,” the Supreme Court said.

Manipur burial

The 10 Kuki-Zo youths who died in a gunfight with security forces on November 11 were laid to rest as “martyrs” in the presence of thousands of mourners in Churachandpur on Thursday morning. They were buried at the Martyrs’ Cemetery along with two more Kuki-Zo youths, also killed in the conflict between the Meiteis and the Kuki-Zos.