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Agence France-Presse

India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday 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 through WhatsApp mobile phone software.

The latest incident saw a Google engineer killed in a mob attack last week in the southern state of Karnataka and five people were lynched in neighbouring Maharashtra on July 1.
Separately, fatal attacks have also been carried out on Muslims by “cow protection” groups who roam highways inspecting livestock trucks. Cows are considered sacred by the majority Hindu community.
The Supreme Court condemned the lynchings and 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 India’s chief justice Dipak Misra.
Parliament must make a law to deal with lynchings and punish offenders, it said.
“No citizen can take law into his hands or become a law onto himself,” the court ruled.
India’s lynching app: who is using whatsapp as a murder weapon?
Lynchings based on misjudgment or malicious information are not a new phenomenon in India. But the spread of smartphones and internet access in the country’s poorest and most isolated areas has exacerbated the problem.

Indian authorities have recently launched awareness campaigns and imposed internet blackouts but the measures have had limited success so far.
The government has also taken WhatsApp to task for the “irresponsible and explosive messages” being shared among its 200 million Indian users – the company’s largest market.
Death by fake news: Indian authorities blame ‘irresponsible and explosive messages’ on WhatsApp for lynchings
WhatsApp, which said it was “horrified” by the violence in India, has introduced new features to help users identify messages that have been forwarded as opposed to written by someone they know.
Tehseen Poonawala, a social rights activist who petitioned the court over lynchings, welcomed the court’s latest order.
“We hope this [law against lynching] becomes a reality. Such a law is really needed in the country,” he told reporters.


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India’s top court demands government act to stop lynchings

Police looking at a damaged vehicle in which two men were lynched Karbi Anglong district, some 180km from Guwahati, the capital city of India’s northeastern state of Assam. Smartphone footage shows the two blood-soaked men pleading for their lives. Moments later they were dead, two more victims of lynchings sparked by rumours spread on Facebook and WhatsApp in India. Photo: AFP

Indian paramilitary force personnel keep vigil near a damaged vehicle after an angry mob lynched one person and injuring others at a makeshift in Tripura State Rifles (TSR) camp in Mohanpur, on the outskirts of Agartala on June 29, 2018. Authorities in north-eastern India have cut internet access after crazed mobs beat three people to death in the latest cases of lynchings sparked by false rumours spread on smartphones, officials said on June 29. / AFP PHOTO / -

Indian members from the Vaadi community participate in a protest in support of Shantadevi Nath, who was killed by a mob that falsely believed she was intent on abducting children on June 27, in Ahmedabad on July 2, 2018. Indian police urged people on June 27 not to believe false rumours spread on WhatsApp after a woman was killed and a dozen hurt in the latest mob attacks to leave authorities looking powerless. / AFP PHOTO / SAM PANTHAKY

epa03647495 General view through the bars of a metal fence of the Supreme Court of India in New Delhi, India, 02 April 2013. News reports say that the Indian apex court withdrew restraining orders that gave the Indian government directions not to allow Italian Ambassador Daniele Mancini to exit India. This order was passed after Italy sent back two of their marines named Massimiliano Latorre and Salvatore Girone who are charged with the alleged killings of two Indian fishermen last year. EPA/ANINDITO MUKHERJEE

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Supreme Court has condemned spate of lynchings sparked by social media rumours and asked states to take ‘preventive, punitive and remedial’ measures


Supreme Court has condemned spate of lynchings sparked by social media rumours and asked states to take ‘preventive, punitive and remedial’ measures.


Crime

India

India’s top court demands government act to stop lynchings

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Supreme Court has condemned spate of lynchings sparked by social media rumours and asked states to take ‘preventive, punitive and remedial’ measures

Supreme Court has condemned spate of lynchings sparked by social media rumours and asked states to take ‘preventive, punitive and remedial’ measures