Mob lynchings rattle Centre, probe begins

New Delhi: Taking serious note of rising incidents of wanton mob lynching across the country, with the two most recent ones being reported from Alwar in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, the Modi government finally swung into action on Monday and set up two high-level committees to examine these incidents and give their recommendations, including legal framework, on how to stop these violent incidents.

The committee headed by home secretary Rajiv Gauba has been asked to submit its report within four weeks to a five-member Group of Ministers (GoM) which will be headed by home minister Rajnath Singh. The GoM will examine the recommendations and submit a final report about steps to taken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

Apart from the home secretary, the committee will include secretaries from other key  ministries and departments like legal affairs as well as social justice and empowerment.  The GoM headed by Mr Singh will include external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, road transport minister Nitin Gadkari, law and justice minister Ravi Shankar Prasad as well as social justice and empowerment minister Thawar Chand Gehlot. 

The government’s move to set up two committees came a week after the Supreme Court asked the Cnetre to enact a law to deal with incidents of lynching and take action on mob violence.  Since the September 2015 lynching of Mohammed Akhlaq in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh, around 200 such incidents have been reported from across the country.

About 90 per cent of the victims have been Muslims.  Earlier this month, on July 6, a controversy erupted after photographs of Union minister Jayant Sinha felicitating eight men convicted of killing a meat trader at his residence on the outskirts of Hazaribag went public. On June 30, 2017, in Ramgarh, Jharkhand, 11 men, including a local BJP leader, had dragged Alimuddin, 55, out of his car and beaten him to death.