The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted interim protection from arrest to a woman lawyer who was part of a three-member fact-finding team that visited Manipur and alleged that the raging ethnic violence in the state was “state-sponsored”, Live Law reported.

A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and Manoj Misra said that no coercive steps can be taken against advocate Deeksha Dwivedi till 5 pm on July 14.

Manipur has been witnessing ethnic clashes between the Kuki and Meitei communities since May 3. Widespread incidents of violence and arson continue to deepen the crisis in the state. Over 140 people have been killed and nearly 60,000 have been forced to flee their homes.

A first information report had been registered against Dwivedi, Annie Raja and Nisha Siddhu on July 8 at a police station in Imphal. Raja and Siddhu are associated with the National Federation of Indian Women, the women’s wing of the Communist Party of India.

The three had been booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code related to waging war against the state, provocation and defamation.

The FIR was lodged on the basis of a complaint filed by a man named L Liben Singh. He had objected to their statements made on July 3 at a press conference, where they detailed their findings.

In its report, the fact-finding team claimed that the ethnic violence in Manipur was not communal or merely a fight between two communities. “It involves questions of land, resources, and the presence of fanatics and militants,” the panel said.

It had also blamed the Bharatiya Janata Party governments in Manipur and at the Centre for not taking enough steps to stop the clashes.

“The violence that broke out on the May 3 did not occur by itself, without any buildup,” the committee had said. “There was a clear backdrop of mistrust and anxiety that was being stoked amidst both the communities by the ruling dispensation at the state and Centre in order to precipitate a full-blown civil war-like situation.”

The panel had also criticised Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh, saying that he should take moral and political responsibility for the violence.

Over 1,500 civil society members criticise FIR against fact-finding team

Over 1,500 members of the civil society on Tuesday issued a statement criticising the “criminalisation” of the fact-finding team by the Manipur Police. The statement noted that the FIR showed the “vindictive nature” of the Manipur government and the state police, who “do not want the truth to be known to the world”.

“It is important to note that this was the first citizens’ fact-finding team, which was an all-women’s team, to Manipur,” the civil society members said. “They went to hear the distress of women and report objectively their stories of violence, loss, displacement, deaths...”

The signatories to the statement also said that the report by the fact-finding team was not misplaced and that the violence and loss of lives in Manipur shows the failure of due diligence by the state.

“We demand the immediate closure of the FIR and initiation of action against the police who indulged in this malicious act of registering an FIR against the fact-finding team,” they said.

The signatories included human rights activists, former civil servants, advocates, and journalists.