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INDIA-COURT-CRIME-RIGHTS-INTERNET
India’s top court demands government act to stop lynchings
NEW DELHI, July 17, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – 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 via WhatsApp.
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 so-
called “cow protection” groups who roam highways inspecting livestock trucks.
Cows are considered sacred by the the majority Hindu community.
The Supreme Court Tuesday 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.
The 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.
Lynchings based on misjudgement 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.
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 had 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.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1340 hrs