Tharoor wants erring policemen, DMs in jail for turning eyes away from lynching incidents

Those creating hostile environment through intimidation and coercive actions should be jailed for six months, Tharoor said

It is not just the mob but the police officer who turns his eyes away from tense situations without "reasonable causes" and district magistrates acting in "mala fide manner" leading to incidents of lynching should face a jail term, senior Congress MP Shashi Tharoor believes.

One who lynches people should be jailed for life while a police officer who fails to prevent an incident of lynching and act in a dubious way during the investigation should end up in prison for a year. A district magistrate who fails to take proper action should face jail for six months, he said.

Those creating hostile environment through intimidation and coercive actions like boycott of trade, making it difficult to earn a living, externing a person or his family, public humiliation through exclusion from public services and forcing one to leave his house should be jailed for six months. All these should also include fines ranging between Rs 25,000 and Rs five lakh.

For this, the Thiruvananthapuram MP has tabled The Protection from Lynching Bill, 2019 in Lok Sabha last Friday to provide for "effective protection" of the Constitutional rights of vulnerable persons, "punish" acts of lynching, set up designated courts and rehabilitation of victims and their families.

To be sure, this is a private members bill, which an MP is entitled to table and discuss in due course, and not a government bill.

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Tharoor's initiative attracts attention to a series of incidents (the lynching of Mohd Aklaque in Uttar Pradesh's Dadri on suspicion of storing beef in his house that invited national interest) that the country witnessed in the recent past after Narendra Modi assumed power in 2014.

"The rising spate of vigilantism and mob lynching on the basis of one's individual identity and choices threatens the notion of an all-embracing India and is a direct threat to the Constitutional ethos of our country. This, therefore, necessitates the need for a special law to aid vulnerable individuals and communities," the Bill says.

"The act of willful omissions and commissions by the custodians of the State, which facilitates mob lynching, must be recognized as a criminal act under the eyes of the law," Tharoor further argues in the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Bill.

State must act as the "bulwark of the freedoms" enshrined in the Constitution and special procedures are required to ensure an effective and independent prosecution of crimes and to deter the growing number of vigilante groups which act with "impunity, in contempt of the secular fabric" of India.

The Bill envisages the Director General of Police appointing a State Coordinator in the rank of an Inspector General while every district will have a district coordinator, who is in the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police to prevent incidents of mob violence and lynching.

While the State Coordinator monitors at the state level, the district coordinators are tasked to identify the existence of the tendencies of vigilantism, mob violence or lynching in the district and take steps to prohibit instances of dissemination of offensive material for inciting such tendencies. The district coordinators will also have to monitor investigations into lynching cases.

Tharoor's Bill wants every police officer to take "all reasonable steps" to prevent any lynching, including its incitement, commission and possible spread, identify patterns of violence and obtaining intelligence.

It also wants a designated judge to look after lynching cases and wants the trial to be held on a day-to-day basis and recording of statements of victim and witnesses within 180 days from the date of the incident. The courts should also ensure that no witness is required to attend court on more than two dates of hearing.

A victim will be heard at any proceeding on bail, discharge, release, parole, conviction or sentence of an accused or any connected proceedings or arguments and file written submissions on conviction, acquittal or sentencing, the Bill says.

Tharoor's Bill also talks about compensation and medical aid while dealing with the incidents of lynching.

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