Sunday marks three years since the outbreak of ethnic clashes in Manipur, but the three-member inquiry committee appointed by the Center – which is probing the cause and lapses that triggered the violence that has killed at least 270 people so far – is yet to submit its findings, after missing four deadlines.
The committee was constituted on June 4, 2023 – almost a month after clashes between the Meitei and Kuki communities broke out on May 3, 2023. According to a government notification issued at the time, the committee was mandated to submit its report to the Center “as soon as possible but not later than six months from the date of its first session.”
The committee has received four extensions to date, with the latest deadline to submit the report being May 20, 2026. Previous deadlines were September 13, 2024, December 3, 2024, May 20, 2025, and December 16, 2025.
An official familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity, said: “The investigation is still ongoing and will take a long time. Eyewitnesses and victims should be summoned to New Delhi to record their statements. The ICI office in Imphal has already collected documents and other evidence related to the ethnic clashes. The process of collecting documents has ended. There are thousands of statements sent by people from both sides. The commission has to decide who should be summoned out of all the requests received so far.”
Committee members were not available for comment. Officials familiar with the matter said that the committee members, who were supposed to visit Manipur in February, postponed their visit due to renewed violence.
People familiar with the matter confirmed that so far, the commission has not summoned or recorded statements of key officials like the then police chief P Dongil, then chief secretary Rajesh Kumar or the then chief minister Biren Singh, who were in charge of the state when the clashes started.
“To determine dereliction of duty, it is necessary to record their statements as they were in charge of all sectors. None of them were summoned as the international investigation committee was collecting evidence and all other paperwork,” said a second official. All key people will be called upon to understand the lapses and their causes. The details will be registered at the Delhi office as it is possible for members of the Kuki community to travel to Delhi instead of Imphal,” he said, stressing that the three have not been summoned yet.
The three officials did not comment on the matter, but people familiar with the matter said that none of them had been summoned even once by the committee.
Manipur is now administered by a new government headed by Prime Minister Yomnam Khimchand Singh, a leader of the Meitei movement. He has two representatives – Kuki MP Nemcha Kipgen and Naga MP Lucy Dekho – in an attempt to form a unity government. But sporadic violence continued to sweep through nearly every community across the state.
Last month, at least 11 people – including two children and a BSF personnel – were killed in separate incidents related to both the Kuki-Maiti and Kuki-Naga clashes.
The commission was tasked with finding answers to four main questions: the causes and spread of violence; The sequence of events leading up to it; Omissions or dereliction of duty on the part of responsible authorities; The adequacy of administrative measures taken to deal with violence. The committee’s headquarters operate from the first floor of a hotel in Imphal, but it also runs a camp office at Major Dhyan Chand Stadium in New Delhi.
Earlier this year, after former committee chairman Ajay Lamba resigned citing personal reasons, the Center appointed former Supreme Court judge Balbir Singh Chouhan as chairman. The other two members are retired bureaucrat Himanshu Shekhar Das and retired police officer Aloka Prabhakar.
