New Delhi: Activists, academicians and students union leaders on Monday have come together to start a campaign against the rising acts of mob lynching across the country. The agenda focusses bringing in a new law under IPC which currently is inadequate to do justice to the victims.
A committee of civil society members includes senior Supreme Court lawyer Sanjay Hegde, social activists, artists and academicians, to formulate a draft of the anti-mob lynching legislation, according to a report of DH.
The group comprises of Gujarat Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani; Tehseen Poonawalla, a kin of Robert Vadra, Kanhaiya Kumar and Shehla Rashid, former president and vice president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) respectively.
“We will hand over the draft of the legislation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Prime Minister for its enactment. The need of our times is a specific law to deal with vigilantism. The government must promulgate an ordinance as soon as possible and make lynching a non-bailable offence with punishment up to life imprisonment,” Poonawalla told reporters at a press conference.
Dalit leader from Gujarat, Mevani threatened to launch a massive stir in July, if the Central government fails to take action towards enactment of the anti-mob-lynching law to be proposed by the committee of civil society members.
“If anti-mob lynching law to be proposed by us is not enacted by July 11, we will once again launch a nationwide stir from the streets of Gujarat and make the government fulfil our demand,” Mevani said.
Former JNU president also threatened for the same if the laws are not kept in place.”Mob lynching has become a phenomenon in India these days, Individuals are being lynched by a mob not just in the name of the cow but for various other reasons including food habits. On every such incident, authorities shrug off their responsibilities by saying that a mob does not have a face. There is need to identify those faces and bring them to justice,” he said.
Senior Supreme Court lawyer, Hegde said such incidents are aggravated offences which require special provisions for investigation and fixing the accountability of both culprits and authorities when he was questioned about why is a special law required in dealing with mob lynching.
“A mob is made to happen. It doesn’t just come out from nowhere. Who fans such mob? Who participates in mob violence? We have to make each and everyone accountable. This is not possible under the provisions of the IPC. We have much communal violence in this country but we have never been able to catch the conspirators,” he added.