The Jharkhand assembly on Tuesday cleared the Prevention of Mob Violence and Mob Lynching Bill, 2021, which provides for jail terms ranging from three years to life imprisonment and monetary fine up to ₹25 lakh against those involved in mob lynching that could lead to injury or death of any individual.
The Bill, which was opposed by the opposition Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in its present form with demand to send it to the select committee, also provides for punishment for “conspiracy or abetment or attempt to lynch”; “obstructing legal process”; “dissemination of offensive material” and “enforcing a hostile environment”, besides compensation for the victims as per existing scheme of the state government.
With passage of the Bill, Jharkhand becomes the third state after West Bengal and Rajasthan, to have put in place such a law against the crime.
A law to this effect was an electoral promise of all three constituents of the ruling JMM-Congress-RJD combine in 2019 assembly polls. Mob lynching was a major poll issue in wake of a series of such incidents in Jharkhand over the past few years.
In the incident on June 17, 2019, which made national headlines, 24-year-old Tabrez Ansari was allegedly tied to a pole and beaten mercilessly by a mob at Dhatkidih village in Seraikela Kharsawan district on suspicion of theft. Ansari was purportedly seen in a video being forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” and “Jai Hanuman”. On June 22, he had succumbed to injuries in the judicial custody.
{{/usCountry}}In the incident on June 17, 2019, which made national headlines, 24-year-old Tabrez Ansari was allegedly tied to a pole and beaten mercilessly by a mob at Dhatkidih village in Seraikela Kharsawan district on suspicion of theft. Ansari was purportedly seen in a video being forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” and “Jai Hanuman”. On June 22, he had succumbed to injuries in the judicial custody.
{{/usCountry}}“The law has been made to ensure people live in peace, harmony and brotherhood. It will now ensure people live and work in the state without any sense of fear,” chief minister Hemant Soren told reporters after the Bill was passed in the assembly.
In total, 12 amendments were moved by legislators, with maximum of nine coming from BJP members, one each from AJSU Party, CPI (ML) and one independent legislator. However, all of these were turned down during discussion on the Bill with a voice vote. BJP legislators walked out of the House in protest after their proposed amendments were turned down.
BJP legislator Amit Mandal, who moved five amendments, said the government seems to have brought the Bill in haste. “Officials who have framed the draft of the Bill seemed to have invented new definition of mob. They describe mob as group of two or more persons. They should check the definition of mob in Oxford dictionary. Also, immense arbitrary power is being given to the police and district magistrate that could be misused even for trivial issues even against political opponents,” Mandal said in the House, while demanding the Bill be sent to the select committee for ironing out the draft.
Another BJP legislator Anant Ojha, who too brought an amendment motion, said the law has been made for appeasement of a particular community. “The way the Bill was brought and passed in the House, it is clear that it has been done as per this government’s appeasement policy. The law has been brought to divert attention of this government from its failures,” said Ojha.
Parliamentary affairs minister Alamgir Alam, however, defended the provisions saying the Bill has been brought in light of the Supreme Court direction over the issue.
Major lynching cases
September 19, 2019: A septuagenarian man was beaten to death by a mob on suspicion of being child lifter in Sahibganj district.
July 22, 2019: Four people in their 60s, including two women, were killed by a mob for alleged “witchcraft” at Siskari in Gumla district.
June 17, 2019: An alleged thief, Tabrez Ansari, was beaten by a mob in Saraiela-Kharsawan district, Four days later, he died in hospital.
April 10, 2019: A tribal man was lynched to death and three others were injured after they were beaten by a mob in the state’s Gumla district.
June 29, 2017: A mob lynched a trader accused of transporting beef in his vehicle in Ramgarh district.
March 18, 2016: Killing of two Muslim men herding cattle to a local market and hanging from a tree in Jharkhand’s Latehar district.