No need for an antilynching law
The IPC has enough provisions to deal with such offences
Last week, the Supreme Court said lynching is a crime no matter what the motive is, but reserved its verdict on pleas seeking directions to formulate guidelines to curb such violence. According to a report in HT, 22 people have been lynched to death since May as rumours of kidnapping of children
ourtake spread on social media. The latest episode was reported from Dhule in Maharashtra, where five men were lynched to death.
While it is difficult to say whether the number of lynching cases have gone up in India, the broadcast of such crimes on social media must worry us because it will normalise such heinous crimes. Mob lynchings also raise another disturbing question: are people losing faith in the judicial/democratic system of governance? And because a mob dispenses what it thinks is justice by itself, it often chooses its victim and the mode of justice. The targets are often the most vulnerable of society.
The frequency of the cases has led to a demand for an antilynching law. But there are enough provisions in the Indian Penal Code — Sections 302 (murder), 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 307 (attempt to murder), 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) — to tackle such incidents. These need to be implemented strongly and effectively. In September 2017, the SC had asked states to take strong measures, including appointing nodal officers at district level, to curb such instances of violence in the name of cow protection, but nothing much has happened. States should be far more vigilant about rumours, particularly on social media. Some states are already doing it. For example, Telangana police officer Rema Rajeshwari (Superintendent of Police, Jogulamba Gadwal district), has trained a team of 500 police officers to tackle the fake news menace. These officers spread awareness on social issues in the villages. The West Bengal police took to Twitter to dispel a rumour that the Mamata Banerjee government had sanctioned a five-day holiday on account of Eid, nixing attempts to incite communal tension. The more proactive the administration is, the stronger a deterrent it will be.