Mob Lynching

• 31 Aug 2019

The West Bengal Assembly has passed a bill to prevent and punish mob assaults and lynching.

• The West Bengal (Prevention of Lynching) Bill, 2019 provides for three years to life imprisonment to those injuring a person and capital punishment or rigorous life imprisonment for those causing death.
• Recently, Rajasthan also passed an anti-lynching bill.
• Manipur was the first state to pass a law against lynching.
• In 2018, the Supreme Court had also issued guidelines to curb lynching.

The Supreme Court’s Guidelines on Preventing 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 Director General of Police (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.
• The Central and the state governments should broadcast on radio and television and other media platforms including the official websites that lynching and mob violence of any kind shall invite serious consequence under the law.
• Curb and stop the dissemination of irresponsible and explosive messages, videos and other material on various social media platforms which have a tendency to incite mob violence. Register FIR under relevant provisions of law against persons who disseminate such messages.
• State governments shall prepare a lynching/mob violence victim compensation scheme.
• Ensure that there is no further harassment of the family members of the victims.
• If a police officer or an officer of the district administration fails to do his/her duty, the same will be considered as an act of deliberate negligence for which an appropriate action must be taken against him/her.

Source: TH