The Centre on Wednesday sent another advisory to the States on checking incidents of lynching and asked them to make the public aware that “mob violence of any kind will invite serious consequences under the law”.
Quoting the September 24 directive of the Supreme Court, the Home Ministry told the States that preventive measures must be taken to check incidents of lynching which have taken place in different parts of the country in the recent past.
The SC had ordered that the Union and the State governments should broadcast on radio and television and other media platforms, including official websites of the Home Department and State police forces, that lynching of any kind would invite serious consequences.
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“We have asked the State governments to comply with the order of the Supreme Court,” a Home Ministry official said.
In an earlier advisory, the Ministry had asked the States to appoint an officer of the rank of Superintendent of Police in each district to set up a special task force for gathering intelligence and closely monitoring social media contents so that no one was attacked on the suspicion of being child-lifter or cattle-smuggler.
The Ministry said that wherever it was found that a police officer or an officer of the district administration had failed to comply with the directions to prevent, investigate and facilitate expeditious trial of any such crime of mob violence and lynching, it should be considered an act of deliberate negligence and misconduct, and strong action must be taken against the official.
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A Group of Ministers headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh is also deliberating on a legal framework to check incidents of lynching.