Palghar resurfacing the concerns over Mob-lynching

INTRODUCTION:

The word "lynch" is derived from the name of two Americans named Charles Lynch and William Lynch which means ' awarding the death sentence without any legal proceeding'. Mob lynching in general terms may be defined as the killing of a person by mob without any legal provocation. This usually happens when people started taking law in their hand because of their hatred and anger, such hatred is based on politics, religion, race, caste or sex.

During recent times India is witnessing a large number of such offences. In India Lynching is not mentioned anywhere under Indian Judicial System. It has been noticed that mob lynching is mostly due to cow slaughter, rumours or fake news relating child kidnappers, and can be a reason of communal disputes.

A very recent case of "Palghar Mob Lynching" on 16 April 2020 took place in which two Hindu priests were going to attend a funeral along with their driver, due to coronavirus outbreak they were passing through a village named Gadchinchale. while passing a group of men stopped their car accusing them of being child lifters and started attacking them with sticks and axes.

CAUSES OF MOB LYNCHING

The reasons behind mob lynching in India involves religion, race, caste, gender, and politics. Also, the ineffectiveness in the laws gives rise to mob lynching. there are various reasons which lead to mob lynching.

SOCIAL CAUSES:.

• RELIGION/ CASTE/ CLASS: this is the main region behind such activities, people go blind on such identities and results in such disgraceful acts.
• COW SLAUGHTER: the rise in the news of immoral trafficking of cows and being slaughtered leads to an outbreak of mob lynching in many regions of India.
• ILLITERACY: due to lack of digital as well as virtual knowledge people easily believe in rumours relating to child lifters and robbery.
• LACK OF SECURITY: due to the lack of State security in regard to immigrants and beggars they got attacked by a mob.
• UNEMPLOYMENT

POLITICAL CAUSES:

Despite rising crimes like mob lynching, the politicians and bureaucrats preferred to be silent spectator, as they are the one behind such acts. It is believed that they misusing the power of their position and promotes violence. They feed hatred among people and use it as their vote bank policy.

TECHNOLOGICAL CAUSES:

India lacks the proper laws in respect of data prevention and regulation. which however results in improper regulation and outbreak of such crimes based on viral false news. Thus, there should be a great need to prevent the communication of fake news on internet to avoid such offences.

NEED FOR SEPARATE MOB LYNCHING LAWS:

It is the need of the hour to have a particular set of laws in respect of mob lynching. due to an increasing number of crimes, it is the only way to stop future happening of such crimes.

Hon'ble Supreme Court stating mob lynching an unlawful offence urged Parliament to enact laws in respect of it. In the case of Tehseen S. Poonawalla Vs. Union of India & ors. (2018), laid down various guidelines relating to the law of mob lynching, these guidelines are as follows:

1. A Senior Police officer must be assigned in each District to control and prevent Mob lynching.
2. The Supreme Court ordered all the State Government to identify all Districts, villages and subdivisions where mob lynching has been reported recently.
3. Nodal officers shall bring to the notice of DGP and Inter-District coordination issues for implementing any strategy to prevent or tackle mob violence and lynching.
4. It is the duty of the Police officer to prevent the mob which, in his opinion likely to cause violence.
5. Central government or State government needs to aware people regarding the consequences of mob lynching by the means of radio, T.V,  Social media, official websites, etc.
6. It is the duty of citizens to lodge FIR against persons who send irresponsible and  explosive messages, videos and other material on social media.
7. To ensure that there shall be no further harassment to the family members of the victim.
8. State government shall prepare a compensation scheme for the victim of mob lynching and violence.
9. Cases of mob lynching needs to be separately tried by fast track court, the trial should be within 6 months.
10. The court needs to award maximum punishment to the accused of lynching so that no one will repeat such offence.
11. If a police officer fails to fulfill his duty, he shall be liable of deliberate negligence.

CONCLUSION:

Mob lynching is a heinous crime, in which a number of people without having a single thought agrees to kill a person. This is due to the illiteracy and lack of awareness. They even don’t differentiate among women and children’s and treat them in the same way they treat men. India needs to curb out from these crimes. Which can only be achieved by spreading education and awareness among people. These crimes are against society and thus requires a separate law to deal with Mob Lynching in India.

(The author, Amisha Jain is a 3rd year B.B.A LL.B(HONS) student at Teerthanker Mahaveer University, Moradabad)

• MOB LYNCHING IN INDIA: SINE QUA NON OF LEGAL INTERVENTION Written by Tanvi Yadav & Nagendra Ambedkar
• Lynching without end: fact finding report into religious motivated vigilant violence in India published by Citizens against Hate, New Delhi, September 2017
• Mob Lynching: A New Crime Emerging In Indian Society written by Nitya Nand Pandey