Top court demands govt act to stop lynchings

The Supreme Court yesterday asked the government to enact a new law and stem what it called “horrendous acts” of lynching, after some 22 people were killed by mobs this year. Since February the country has seen a spate of mob lynchings, often in isolated areas where outsiders have been accused of child kidnapping and other crimes following fake rumours spread via WhatsApp. The Supreme Court asked states to take “preventive, punitive and remedial” measures to curb the trend. “Horrendous acts of mobocracy cannot be allowed to become a new norm. It has to be curbed with an iron hand,” observed a bench headed by chief justice Dipak Misra.