A Study on Mob Lynching in Indian Perspective

A Study on Mob Lynching

A Study on Mob Lynching in Indian Perspective

by Rekha Khandelwal

published in Mob Lynching : Legal and Social Dimensions Edited book by Dr. Sheeetal Prasad Meena & Mr. Hitesh Goyal

• Introduction:-

Mob lynching has emerged as a problem in India. Mob lynching means to punish an alleged transgressor, a convicted transgressor or to intimidate a groupwithout legal process or authority especially by hanging. It is a premeditated extra judicial killing by a group. This is a kind of inhuman act. It shows that some people have the law into their own hands. But the thing to ponder is whether today mob lynching practices should be allowed to happen in a country like India? If allowed to happen, then it would not be fair to say that there is no one above the law. That is, the law is the same for everyone. Such practice promotes communal violence, discrimination, casteism, inhumanity and injustice across the country whereas the Constitution of India envisages secular, socialist, democratic republic and political, social and economic justice for all citizens and the unity that upholds the dignity of the nation, enhancing the fraternity that maintains integrity. But with the practice of mob lynching, can the purpose of the Preamble of the Indian Constitution be fulfilled? No.  At the time of the framing constitution Fundamental rights have been enshrined in the Indian constitution for all the citizens of the country and constitutional remedies have also been laid down, a process of law has been prescribed for all by framers of constitution. In such a situation, how can such practices like mob lynching be allowed, So today, the practice of mob lynching will have to be stopped; special laws are required to prevent it. Only making special law is not enough but also needs of removing of all reasons of mob lynching like: Poor Implementation of minority’s laws, Lack of accountability and conviction, Vote-bank politics, Police failure, Social media menace, High Unemployment rates and social conflicts which are increasing morale of people for mob lynching. So that the belief of people could be regain in law. The Supreme Court has also given instructions to the government for making law to prevent it. Mob lynching like practice is promoting communal violence, discrimination, casteism in India and it is against the preamble of constitution. So the government should enact law and do all efforts as soon as possible to curb this. In a vast republic like India, there is no place for practice like mob lynching. There is need to build a new and strong India and to emerge as a big economic power to fulfil the objectives of the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. Thus, mob lynching should be condemned, discouraged and curbed by making special law by government.

Even in the case of India, black-handed lynching may be a new vocabulary, but it has been propagated in society from time to time for hundreds of years. However, the issue of private parts of public meetings in India is decided entirely by the country’s political parties based on their political goals. Whether the position is on the street or in parliament, everyone uses it for their own political purposes. “Mob lynching violence refers to the hate galvanized violence against the minorities. Its associate in nursing illegal social control to penalize someone presupposed to have committed a criminal offense. In India, such violence is generally inflicted upon Muslims or several connected matters or for the other reason (eg. Love jihad).  In India, one incident transpire on 10th June 2012 wherever activists of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Gowshala Sangh broken the mill and burnt the homes of its house owners once 25 carcasses ( similar thereto of cows) were found close to their mill and were suspected to possess killed them. Mob lynching could be a reasonably temporary downside and additional media publicity. It is a sort of crime; it ought to be like a shot controlled by any of the ways. Such styles of incidences are a foul blot on the civilization.”[1]

• Increasing Data of mob lynching in India
• Incidents statistics by year

Incidents statistics by year https://en.wikipedia.org/Last visited on Sept 2, 2020

• Incidents of violence from 2015 to 2020

Incidents of violence from 2017 to 2020 available at https://en.wikipedia.org/Last visited on Sept,2 2020

• Construction of Culture of Impunity:

All above incidents are showing the construction of culture of impunity in India which is opposed to a culture of respectful rule of law. ‘[3]The term “culture of impunity” refers to a situation in which people in a society have come to believe that they can do whatever they want with impunity (which means without having to face any consequences for their actions).  In the context of genocide, it means that the culture of the country was such that people literally felt that they could get away with murder. This concept is pretty much 180 degrees opposed to the idea of the rule of law.  The rule of law is the idea that all people will be punished if (and only if) they break the law.  There is no impunity for anyone under the rule of law. There is a African incident behind it ‘During the Rwandan genocide of 1994, at least a million Tutsis were massacred by the majority Hutus in the space of about three months (April-June 1994). The genocide ended when the Tutsi rebel group, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RFP), defeated the regime of President Habyarimana, a Hutu. The President’s plane was shot down on April 6, 1994, and the genocide began almost immediately after the incident.’

• Reasons for rising mob lynching in India
• “Poor Implementation of minority’s laws: An act of lynching reflects failure of law to protect minorities and punish the culprits. State action is important in strict enforcement of law and punishing the culprits.
• No law on mob lynching: there is any comprehensive law on mob lynching in India. This allow culprit to go free unpunished.
• Lack of accountability and conviction: Mob has no face. This impunity leads mob to take extreme steps. Thus community and state role increase to stop such crimes. Active participation of civil society against such crimes and helping state and law enforcement agencies in nabbing the criminal is critical.
• Vote-bank politics: Sometimes, political mobilisation that uses violence as a tool of politics, support such elements in society. Here community awareness and action against such politicians become necessary to prevent such vote bank politics.
• Police failure: Indifferent attitude of Police leads people to take law in their own hands. Also police delays and inability to catch the criminals lead to more such incidents. State should be more proactive in police reforms. Strict action should be taken against any police officials who do not record such incidents in criminal records.
• Social media menace: Rise in penetration of Social media and its usage to spread rumours and hatred has exaggerated such incidents. A vigil community with state action on taking action against cyber criminals is must to prevent fake news and rumours.
• High Unemployment rates: High unemployment leave millions of youth unengaged. These young brains are often misguided and brainwashed through various ideologies and agendas. State action is important to provide more employment opportunities to youth with focus on economic development of the region.
• Social Conflicts: These crimes impact solidarity of society and idea of Unity in diversity. This creates an atmosphere of majority v/s minority. It could aggravate caste, class and communal hatred. Thus community and state need to work together to stop such crimes. Programs especially focused on teaching values of tolerance and secularism is important.”[4]
• Mob Lynching cases in India

In Kherlanji Massacre 2006 – “One of the primary cases of lynching was reported in 2006, when four individuals were lynched over a land dispute at Kherlanji in Maharashtra’s Bhandara district. On September 29 Day, 2016, a mob of a minimum of 50 villagers stormed into Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange’s house, and lynched four members of his family. Bhotmange’s spouse Surekha and their daughter Priyanka were paraded naked within the village and sexually abused before savagely murdering them. The attack was when these ladies filed a police complaint against fifteen villages that trashed a relative. Eight out of eleven defendants were condemned this January. There were efforts to normalise the lynching later stating that it had been a casteist atrocity against Dalits by the politically dominant Kumbi caste.”[5]

Dimampur Lynching 2015– “The next lynching that aghast the nation happened in Nagaland’s Dimapur in  2015. In February, a mob of least seven, 7000 to 8,000 infuriated people poor into Dimapur Central Jail, dragged 35-year-old Syed Farid Khan suspect in rape case out, paraded him naked, stoned him, thrashed him, dragged him for over seven kilometres, attaching a rope to his waist from a motorcycle, killing him. Khan’s family claimed he was framed and aforementioned that the girl invited Khan to a hotel, forced him to drink and demanded Rs 2, 00,000 from him. The horrific mob violence was later quoted by many as a stellar example of serving justice.” [6]

Jharkhand Lynching – 2017 “Shocking the state and attracting the eye of western media, seven individuals were lynched by villagers in various parts of Jharkhand on an equivalent day, over suspicion that they were child lifters. Two men were crushed to death in Sosomoli village, one man was lynched within the Shobhapur village, and three others were killed in Nagadih. It’s a matter of shame that each one took for this sort of violence to erupt were many. WhatsApp messages warning individuals of some child lifters being active within the Kolkhan of Jamshedpur. Out of the seven, four were of muslim community and three were of Hindu community. The right-wingers slammed the media accusing or blaming them of not covering the incident since there was no ‘cow’ concerned and since there was no communal angle, however reports stated that the region saw communal clashes over children seizure, except for the lynching.”[7]

• Cow vigilante violence in India

“As of 2016 cow protection vigilante groups were estimated to have sprung up in hundreds, perhaps thousands of towns and villages in northern India. There were an estimated 200 such groups in Delhi-National Capital Region alone. Some of the larger groups claim up to 5,000 members. One kind of cow protection groups are gangs who patrol highways and roads at night, looking for trucks that might be smuggling cows across the state borders. These gangs can be armed; they justify this by claiming that cow smugglers themselves are often armed. The Haryana branch of Bhartiya Gau Raksha Dal described to The Guardian that it had exchanged gunfire with alleged smugglers, killed several of them and lost several of its members too. The gangs have been described as unorganized and gang leaders admit that their members can be hard to control. The gangs consist of volunteers, many of whom are poor labours. The volunteers often tend to be young. According to a gang leader, it’s easy to motivate a youth. Often the youth are given emotional motivation by being shown graphic videos of animals being tortured. One member said that cow vigilantism had given him a purpose in life. The vigilantes often have a network of informers consisting of cobblers, rickshaw drivers, and vegetable vendors etc., who alert them to supposed incidents of cow slaughter. The group members and their network often use social media to circulate information.  Their relationship with the police is disputed: some vigilantes claim to work with the police, while others claim that the police are corrupt and incompetent, and that they are forced to take matters into their own hands.^”[8]

·        Laws, state support, and legal issues

‘The BJP government have introduced some restrictions on the slaughter of cattle. The slaughter of cattle for exporting beef was banned in May 2017. This restriction threatened an Indian beef export industry worth $4 billion annually. Several Indian states further restricted the slaughter of cows. For example, Maharashtra passed stricter legislation banning the possession, sale and consumption of beef in March 2015. Cow vigilantes have also been emboldened by these laws, and attack Muslims suspected of smuggling cattle for slaughter. Some Indian states have been accused of having laws that enable cow protection groups. In April 2017 the governments of six states: Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh were asked by the Supreme Court to answer a request to ban cow-protection related vigilantism. Many vigilantes believe their actions are approved by the government and Hindus of the country. For example, the vigilante group Gau Rakshak Dal, believe it is acting on government mandate. Scholar Radha Sarkar has stated that the bans on beef tacitly legitimize vigilante activity. Such groups across the country have taken it upon themselves to punish those they believe to be harming the cow. Such incidents of violence have occurred even in situations in which no illegal actions have occurred, such as in the handling of dead cattle. According to Sarkar, cow protection groups have taken actions that they know to be illegal, because they believe that they have the support of the government. In November 2016, the BJP-led Haryana government decided to provide ID cards for cow vigilantes. However they were not issued despite collecting the details of vigilantes. According to Russia Today and Human Rights Watch, many cow protection vigilante groups are allied with the BJP According to BBC News, many cow-protection vigilantes attend training camps organized by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which is BJP’s parent organization. Mukul Kesavan, in The Telegraph, accused BJP officials of justifying vigilantism. He pointed out that after some vigilante attacks, the BJP officials tried to get the police to charge the victims (or their family) for provoking the assault. In 2018, a three judge bench of the Supreme Court, made observations that such incidents of vigilantism was mob violence and a crime. In addition, it placed the responsibility to prevent such crimes, on the states.’[9]

• Violence in the name of cow at an all timehigh :-

‘A Muslim man, 32-year-old Mazlum Ansari and a 15-year-old shaver, Imteyaz Khan, were savagely thrashed by a neighbourhood ‘gau rakshak’ cluster in March, 2016. The two were defendant of importation bovine however were truly on the thanks to sell eight oxen they in hand at a bovine market in Chatra district of the state. The alleged cow vigilantes, a bunch that ought to be said as terrorists, not solely attacked the two; they killed them and hanged from a tree. In the year2016, the self-proclaimed cow vigilantes took law into their own hands and physically raped Muslims, showing “safeguarding cow” because the cause and accusatory them of being in possession of beef or transporting bovine, that in several cases, they had bought lawfully. Other than outrage by those labelled as ‘libtards’ (liberals) on social media platforms, the gau rakshaks haven’t baby-faced serious legal repercussions for the violence.Mob lynching is therefore common currently. The argument place forth by those that have political inclination to the left is that the quantity of execution in Asian country has steady up since the time the Narendra Modi; BJP government came to power within the Centre. There was a law passed against mob lynching and that is done by Mamata Banerjee government passes law against mob lynching with provision of corporal punishment. The bill, elapsed a voice vote, within the aftermath of a string of incidents of individuals obtaining crushed to death over rumours of kine importation and child thievery, carries penalization of a jail term for 3 years to immurement in cases of assault resulting in injury, besides a fine starting from Rs one hundred thousand to Rs 3 hundred thousand.’[10]

The Supreme Court has issued several directives for this crime, including preventive, restorative and punitive measures: Followed by this there were bills introduced against honour killing and mob lynching in Rajasthan assembly. The Supreme Court condemned the personal crimes of people across the country and called on Congress to pass laws to curtail crimes, including the rule of law and threats to the country’s social ills.

• Prescription given by Supreme Court for ending mob lynching

“The state governments shall designate a senior police officer in each district for taking measures to prevent incidents of mob violence and lynching.

* The state governments shall immediately identify districts, sub-divisions and villages where instances of lynching and mob violence have been reported in the recent past.

* The nodal officers shall bring to the notice of the DGP any inter-district co-ordination issues for devising a strategy to tackle lynching and mob violence related issues.

* It shall be the duty of every police officer to cause a mob to disperse, which, in his opinion, has a tendency to cause violence in the disguise of vigilantism or otherwise

* Central and the state governments should broadcast on radio and television and other media platforms including the official websites that lynching and mob violence shall invite serious consequence.

* Curb and stop dissemination of irresponsible and explosive messages, videos and other material on various social media platforms. Register FIR under relevant provisions of law against persons who disseminate such messages.

* Ensure that there is no further harassment of the family members of the victims.

* State governments shall prepare a lynching/mob violence victim compensation scheme.

* Cases of lynching and mob violence shall be specifically tried by designated court/fast track courts earmarked for that purpose in each district. The trial shall preferably be concluded within six months.

*To set a stern example in cases of mob violence and lynching, the trial court must ordinarily award maximum sentence upon conviction of the accused person.

*If it is found that a police officer or an officer of the district administration has failed to fulfill his duty, it will be considered as an act of deliberate negligence.”[11]

• Today’s Need of Special Law to Curb Mob Lynching

“Lynching does not find mention in the Indian Penal Code. No particular law has been passed to deal with lynching,” India Today noted on June 25, 2017. “Absence of a codified law to deal with mob violence or lynching makes it difficult to deliver justice in the cases of riots. However, Section 223(a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 says that persons or a mob involved in the same offence in the same act can be tried together. But, this has not proved to have given enough legal teeth to (the) justice delivery system.”[12]

• Best Solution for Curbing Mob lynching in India:-

Efforts for removing all reasons available in India for mob lynching like:Increase Police Communication with Locals – Regular police staff meetings with locals, children and young people at People’s Ledge can increase public confidence in the police and administration. Bring awareness through the local administration with the help of NGOs and increase the rate of social media education. Immediate reforms for police reform, judicial reform, and reform of the criminal justice system may be good solution. Need to ensure balanced regional development. Need to enact a special law for curbing mob lynching in India. It will establish a sense of responsibility on those responsible for maintaining law and order. It will have an impact on the public rather than the rule of law. Strict punishment and compensation should be applied in case of loss of property and life. In my opinion, there is no single solution for the mob lynching problem. Some structural improvements are required.

• Conclusion: –

 After analysing all the above data, the researcher has come to the conclusion that practices like mob lynching is a curse for a huge democracy like India. Through this, problems of unrest, violence, discrimination, communal segregation, injustice with minorities etc. have emerged in India. There are several reasons behind these frequent incidents. Most of all, there is a need to reform the justice system so that the pending case in the court is resolved in time and people have confidence in the law and do not take the law into their own hands. At the same time, there is a need for improvement in police administration, due to lack of proper coordination between the police and the public, incidents like mob lynching are being encouraged in which many innocent people also become victims of incidents like mob lynching. In order to end incidents like mob lynching, the government has to remove all the reasons which are responsible for mob lynching along with the need to enact a special law on mob lynching. The guidelines given by the Supreme Court in the direction of removing mob lynching will have to be followed. We can build a new and economically strong India by ending incidents like mob lynching. There is no one above the law; the law is the same for everyone. So the government should enact law and do all efforts as soon as possible to curb this. In a vast republic like India, there is no place for practice like mob lynching. There is need to build a new and strong India and to emerge as a big economic power to fulfil the objectives of the Preamble of the Indian Constitution. Thus, mob lynching should be condemned, discouraged and curbed by making special law by government.

[1] https://www.latestlaws.com/a Last visited Sept 1, 2020

[2] Incidents of violence from 2017 to 2020 available at https://en.wikipedia.org/Last visited on Sept,2 2020

[3]Construction of Culture of Impunity available at https://www.enotes.com/Last visited on Sept 3, 2020

[4]Reasons for rising mob lynching in Indiahttps://blog.forumias.com/aLast visited on Sept 3, 2020

[5]Kherlanji Massacre 2006available at  https://indianexpress.com/article/Last visited on Sept 4, 2020

[6] Dimampur Lynching 2015http://www.indiaspend.com/Last visited on Sept 4, 2020

[7]Jharkhand Lynching – 2017  https://indianexpress.com/article/Last visited on Sept 5, 2020

[8]Cow vigilante violence in IndiaAvailable at  https://en.wikipedia.org/Last visited on Sept 7, 2020,

[9] Laws, state support, and legal issues https://en.wikipedia.org/Last visited on Sept 7, 2020

[10] Violence in the name of cow at an all timehigh available athttps://www.latestlaws.com/articles Last visited on Sept 7, 2020

[11]Prescription given by Supreme Court for ending mob lynching available at https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news

[12] https://archive.indiaspend.com/Last visited on Sept 6, 2020

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