MOB LYNCHING : THE ANONYMOUS COVERAGE OF VIOLENCE

On 16 April 2020, a group of stranger lynched two Hindu Sadhus and their driver in Gad chinchale village, Palghar district, Maharashtra fuelled by fake WhatsApp rumour of thieves operating in the area during countrywide coronavirus lockdown on a misbelieve have been killed and policemen who tried to intervene were attacked resulting four policemen and a senior police officer were injured.Which type of crime can be classified as an offence under various laws? The main criteria rely upon the inhumane treatment of the individual with prejudices of ethnic minority or discrimination on race, caste, creed, sex,gender, dietary intake of food i.e. vegetarian or non- a vegetarian emphasis that it disregards fact of the matter and travel into prima facie obnoxious violence of marginalized communities to serve the filling of their drainage system with a pound of flesh and blood to feed their counterpart disbelief upon undefined information. This illegal social control and political supremacy overpower maintenance of law and order into their hand without due super vision and intervention of security force though it is evident that We, the people of India give to ourselves law binding to its citizens but it doesn’t interpret that people must resort to violence to preserve and promote the justice,equality and fraternity among its citizens on the path of favouring religious member of one community. It disavows long procedural inquiry of filing FIR,substantive evidence and contesting the case with intellectual assertion otherwise adopt for speedy dilution of the subject matter by manslaughter with temporary infringement of fundamental right of life with dignity under Article 21. It has also become a platform of prevailing political ideology to widespread enchanting policies and incite the public against opposition or reservation of one caste one leader to secure whims of majority underprivileged foundation of opportunity and living standard. Mob lynching is an extreme form of unauthorized public execution by the public against alleged transgressor to punish him with the conviction of death after spectacle in form of hanging,beating brutally with stones, sticks until transgressor kick the bucket. For the action of the lynching of the victim must conceive the element of the mob for attacking the alleged accused but it is interesting to know that mob may constitute any professional or unprofessional, expertise employee or Dalit worker, group of President, Prime Minister or Ministers to conspire such barbarism depraved from caste, religion, sex or place of birth. The incident range from a suspicious allegation of beef transportation or consumption, child lifting, the practice of witchcraft with multiple cases in states like Bihar,Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka,Telangana. The motive behind such act can be seen as the head of the village or members of the community presume their responsibility of security of all aspect from consumption of food to non-involvement of Dalit people to avoid contamination of the sacred places and contempt that police are corrupt identity to handle such case and incompetent provide speedy justice to the society. There is a wide-ranging perception that ‘culprits’ go unpunished, and that there is a chance that the accused in heinous crimes like rape, child lifting and cow-slaughter will go scot-free. It must be noted that crime cannot be countered by another crime for the sake of validating former crime and vouch for instant redressal of the grievance without due process of law.

As per Hate Crime Watch, a Fact Checker.in database, Muslims, who were victims in 60% of hate crimes out of 14% India’s Population; Christians, in 14% cases out of 2% population; and Hindus, in 14% cases out of 79.8% population. Let take the real example of Dadri mob lynching 2015 in which villagers attacked Mohammed Akhlaq, a 52 years old Muslim man on his house on the suspicion of stealing and slaughtering a cow, died on the spot and his 22 years old son,Danish is seriously injured. Such inhumane treatment of the people based on their consumption of the food outspoken the killing of the individual made us understand that current scenario of living standard of the public is striving for an indefinite footstep of the destruction of humankind and generosity along with unethical compassion upon animals at the cost of human life.

The Supreme Court of India in Re Kangaroo Courts case had come up with the concept of “extra-judicial murders” and categorically asserted that this lynching is antithetical to the rule of law. In 2018, the Supreme Court described lynching as a “horrendous act of mobocracy”[1]. In July 2018 , the Supreme Court passed specific guidelines on preventive,corrective and punitive aspects of lynching and directed the State Governments to give effect to them with respect to fast track trials, compensation to victims, punishment for police officials for negligent in their duties. Although no data has been released by the NCRB regarding the number of cases of lynching in the country since 2015 for unknown reasons.

Manipur become the first state to come up with the law of mob lynching wherein, there would be a nodal officer in each district to prevent the promulgation of the crime and police officer who found to violate the conduct of action would be liable for a imprisonment from one to three years and fine of Rs. 50,000 without any involvement of the state government.  The provision for establishment of rehabilitation centre to protect victim from external threat or coercion and relief camps where community is displaced. Thereafter Rajasthan formulated the law for lynching after 2014, 86% cases of mob lynching reported in the country happened in Rajasthan.[2] It accepted few guidelines of SC but remained silent on inaction of police officials. On the other hand, West Bengal come up with strict punishment for the accused that they would be liable with death penalty or life imprisonment and fine of  Rs 5 lakh.

The Protection from lynching Act 2017 provides with the security and protection of the vulnerable people in order to guarantee them right to life with dignity and equal protection of law irrespective of the his/her social, economical or political background. It defined mob as two or more individual with the intention of lynching [3]beside police official would take appropriate action to prevent the commission of the offence on the basis on the power vested under section 129 of the Code.

Punishment for offence of lynching specified the following types :

1.Wherein victim suffered hurt, imprisonment extend to 7 years and a fine extend to Rs. 1 lakh.

2.Wherein victim suffered grievous hurt, imprisonment extend to 10 years and fine extend to Rs. 3 lakh

3.Wherein victim died, liable for rigorous imprisonment for life and fine extend to Rs.5 lakh[4]

The police officer in charge of the region found out to omit the duty without any reasonable cause would be punishable under Police Act of the respective states with imprisonment extend to 6 months and fine of Rs. 50,000[5].All the offence shall be cognizable and non- bailable [6].The District Magistrate exercising mala fide authority to cause injury to person or property or omit to prevent commission of the act shall be imprisonment extend to 6 months or fine or both[7].

Mob Lynching has become such tremendous aggressive measures to curtail freedom of the individual with the liability of public justice omitting right of life and human rights since all men are born free and government must promulgate the message of the illegality of mob violence against any individual as due notice that if the victim causes death covered under section 302 of IPC with strict reforms of police officials and judicial to secure our environment from infringement of fundamental right of its people. The main crime would be to remain silent as it might be you next time to be lynched. Such a victim must be provided with free legal aid to secure justice. Stop spreading fake WhatsApp message and increase media coverage against cruelty.

[1]The Hindu article on preventing mob lynching

[2]The Hindu article on preventing mob lynching

[3]Section 2 (b) of The Protection from Lynching Act 2017

[4]Section 7 of PFLA 2017

[5]Section 12 of PFLA 2017

[6]Section 15 of PFLA 2017

[7]Section 13 of PFLA 2017

‍