NEW DELHI: While refusing to club pleas on attacks against women in states like West Bengal, Rajasthan, Kerala and Chhatisgarh, the Supreme Court (SC) has described violence against in conflict-ridden Manipur as being of an 'unprecedented magnitude' and it cannot be equated.

A senior bench of the apex court of the country made these scathing remarks when it was hearing a batch of pleas related to the ethnic violence in Manipur, and when advocate Bansuri Swaraj sought to bring up crime against women in opposition-ruled states as an intervention in the Manipur case.

Advocate Swaraj said that after the horrific incident of two women paraded naked in Maipur in May came to light similar and identical incidents have taken place in Bengal and Chhattisgarh. "The daughters of India need to be protected," Swaraj pleaded. The court however said, "We will hear you on that later we are dealing with Manipur right now."

The bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and comprised of Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, which had listed a clutch of pleas on Manipur violence for hearing on Tuesday termed the video of two women being paraded naked in Manipur as 'horrendous' and sought information about steps taken so far in the first information reports (FIRs) lodged in the state. 

The bench was very distressed to note that, though the incident of stripping and parading these women came to light on May 4 why the Manipur police took 14 days to register an FIR only on May 18. It has also asked the state government to provide the details of the number of 'zero FIRs' registered in the state torn by ethnic violence and the arrests made so far in those FIRs.

The court said it will not want the state police to probe the matter as they virtually handed over the women to the rioting mob. "There are media reports that these women were handed over to mob by the police. We also do not want the police to handle it," the bench noted and added that it may set up a  Special Investigation Team (SIT) or a committee comprising former judges to monitor the situation in the strife-torn state after hearing the points made by the centre and the Manipur state.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who earlier appeared for the Centre as well as for the state government, informed the bench that the Centre has no objection if the apex court decides to monitor the investigation in such cases of violence.

Manipur has been on the boil since early May this years and it is estimated that at least 150 people have been killed and several hundred injured in ethnic violence that started when after a 'Tribal Solidarity March' called on May 3 by the All Tribal Students’ Union of Manipur (ATSUM) to protest against the majority Meitei community's demand for Scheduled Tribe status. Many homes were destroyed in several parts, including Imphal Valley, inhabited mostly by the Meitei community.