 About:

o Mob lynching is a term used to describe the acts

of targeted violence by a large group of people.
o The violence is tantamount to offences against
human body or property- both public as well as
private.
o The mob believes that they are punishing the
victim for doing something wrong (not necessarily
illegal) and they take the law in their own hands to
punish the purported accused without following
any rules of law.
 Causes :

o Failure of state: The failure of state in protecting

Minorities from mob, lack of proper mechanism in
place. People are losing their faith in law and order
machinery therefore they are taking laws in their hand.
o Rise in intolerance: In recent times intolerance has
increased especially against marginalised. For example,
intolerance has increased against Muslims for cow
slaughter and mob lynching case has increased on any
news of beef eating lead to mob lynching of the
Muslims. With rise in anger fuelled by fake news and
propagandas, mob lynching cases has increased.
o Misguided youth: With rise in unemployment, youth
are being misguided ideologically by politicians or
religious groups. Due to misguidance of youth, they act
against certain sects to take revenge or are motivated
by thrill and excitement.
o Biased view: A bias against any group due to historical
or social reasons motivate mob to commit a hate crime.
For example, Muslim being tagged as terrorist lead to
an act of lynching against them by mob.
o Lack of impunity: One of the major reasons for the rise
in mob lynching is impunity. Police find it difficult to
 register cases against big crowds, some people get
advantage of it. There is no particular law to deal with
lynching and it finds no mention in the Indian Penal
Code. Hence often the perpetrators get away with it.
o Propagandas: In India people are very emotive on
sensitive issues. It is very easy to flare them up. Some
people are spreading wrong information on social
media especially on Facebook and WhatsApp. Some
people used this incident to settle their personal enmity.

 Types of Mob-lynching: Mob-Lynching based on the causes

can be classified into Six types. They are:
o Communal based
o Witchcraft
o Honour killing
o Bovine-related mob lynching
o Theft cases
o Religious

1. Communal based - communal based mob lynching is when

group or community attack another community in the name of
religious hate or past incident happened,
The most recent incident of communal violence happened in
2020 in our national capital New Delhi’s North Eastern part
Where multiple waves of bloodshed, property destruction
happened, Starting on 23 February 2020, This incident is mainly
caused due to the clash between the people who are in favour
and who are against the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 (The
Act has amended the Citizenship Act,1955 to give eligibility for
Indian citizenship to illegal migrants who are Hindus, Sikhs,
Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan,
Bangladesh and Pakistan, and who entered India on or before
31 December 2014. The Act does not mention Muslims)
As mentioned the CAA does not mentioned the Muslims ,most
of the CAA opposers were Muslims and as in our country most
 of the population is of Hindus , most of the supporters of CAA
were Hindus due to this religious angle the violence was broken
out in the Chand Bagh(where many Muslims were protesting
against CAA) area of Jaffrabad New Delhi .

2. Witchcraft Based – Killing or harassing some one for the reason of

superstition like witchcraft or black magic
For Example

On February 24 in Buruhatu Aamtoli under the limits of the Kamdara police

station in Jharkhand's Gumla district. Initial reports had suggested that five
members of a family were killed on suspicion of practicing black magic and
witchcraft.
The five victims were lynched to death by a mob of angry villagers who
blamed them for the deaths of locals owing to poor health.
Jharkhand Police later arrested eight villagers for being complicit in the brutal
murders.
On Thursday, the Jharkhand HC asked the state government about measures
taken to curb such instances in the future.
Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan said campaigns and seminars against
superstition over witchcraft have been organised. A massive awareness
campaign is the need of the hour, the Advocate General said adding that the
onus is on everyone to eradicate this evil from society.

3. Honour Killing – acts of violence, usually murder, committed by

male family members against female family members, who are
held to have brought dishonor upon the family. A woman can
be targeted by (individuals within) her family for a variety of
reasons, including: refusing to enter into an arranged marriage,
being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce — even
from an abusive husband — or (allegedly) committing adultery

For Example -
PATNA: A 20-year-old man was remanded in judicial custody on Friday for the
“honour killing” of his younger sister for having a relationship with a man from a
neighbouring village. Ramesh Kumar was arrested on Thursday from a Masaurhi
village in eastern Patna.
 4. Bovine-related mob lynching - - cow vigilante violence or
Bovine-related mob lynching is the use of physical force in the
name of Cow protection

In the Alwar lynching, Pehlu Khan, a dairy farmer from Nuh district of

Haryana, was murdered by a group of 200 cow vigilantes affiliated with
right-wing Hindutva groups in Alwar, Rajasthan, India. Six others who
were with Pehlu Khan were also beaten by the cow vigilantes. The state
government initially charged the victims with "cruelty to animals" under
the state law prohibiting cattle slaughter

5. Theft related Mob Lynching – violence for the reason or suspicion

of theft

For Example –
PATNA: A 25-year-old youth was lynched by a mob for allegedly trying to steal battery from a
tractor at Gangti village under the Pakribarawan police station area in Nawada district in the
wee hours of Thursday.

6. Religious – violence on the reason or suspicion of hurting

religious sentiments or violation of religious rules

For Example –
1. on December 18, 2021 at the Amritsar Golden
Temple, the holiest shrine for Sikhs, when a man
allegedly barged into the inner sanctum, where
Sikhism's holy book, the Guru Granth Sahib, is kept.
[1]
 The man grabbed a ceremonial sword placed next
to the holy book; but was overpowered by Sikh
guards and worshippers, and then beaten to death
before the Police arrived at the scene
2. in the early hours of December 19, 2021, when
another man was accused of sacrilege after he
allegedly tried to remove the Sikh flag, Nishan
Sahib, from a Sikh temple in Kapurthala, Punjab.[2]
[5]
 The Kapurthala police claimed as per preliminary
investigations, it seemed to be a case of theft and
there was no evidence of sacrilege.[6] However, the
Sikh granthi, Amarjit Singh claimed that the youth
had attempted sacrilege as the man fiddled with the
holy Nishan Sahib flag; and therefore, the local
 sewadars caught hold of the suspect and tied him up
in the store room, where he was beaten up to death

 Related Issues:
o Mob lynching is a violation of human
dignity, Article 21 of the Constitution, and a gross
infringement of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights.
o Such incidents violate the Right to Equality and
Prohibition of discrimination, which are enshrined
in Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution of India.
o However, it is nowhere mentioned in the law of the
land and is hence simply put as murder since it
has not been yet incorporated under the Indian
Penal Code.
 Related Steps Taken:
o Preventive Measures:
 In July 2017, the Supreme Court in the case
of Tahseen s. Poonawala v. UOI had laid down
several preventive, remedial and punitive
measures to deal with lynching and mob violence.
 The Supreme Court in this case
aptly referred to mob lynching as a
‘horrendous act of mobocracy.’
o Designated Fast Track Courts:
 States were directed to set up designated fast
track courts in every district to exclusively deal
with cases involving mob lynchings.
o Special Task Force:
 The court had also mooted the setting up of a
special task force with the objective of procuring
intelligence reports about the people involved in
 spreading hate speeches, provocative statements
and fake news which could lead to mob
lynchings.
o Victim Compensation Schemes:
 Directions were also issued to set up Victim
compensation schemes for relief and
rehabilitation of victims.
 A year later in July 2019 the Supreme
Court issued notices to the Centre and several
states asking them to submit the steps taken by
them towards implementing the measures and
file compliance reports.
 As of now only three states Manipur, West
Bengal and Rajasthan have enacted laws against
mob lynching.
 The Jharkhand Assembly has passed
Prevention of Mob Violence and Mob
Lynching Bill, 2021 recently.
My Views And The Way Forward
 Lynchings are an abomination that must have no place in a
democratic society, which India prides itself to be.
 Lynchings are a uniquely unsettling derailment of
governance — while an act of mob violence is itself a sign of
failure of law enforcement, it is committed in an apparent
consideration that there can be no legal recourse.
 In a pathological subversion of principles, the police
inaction in cases of mob violence is reciprocated by an
apparent public sanction of extrajudicial punishments by the
police.
 All this bodes ill for the country. Mob violence indeed
defames the country and there must be stringent
intervention by the police to bring an end to this.
 The political leadership also has a role to play in questioning
the social consent that allows mob violence.
1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Lynchings_for_sacrilege_in_Punjab
#:~:text=The%202021%20Lynchings%20for%20sacrilege,to%20alleged
%20acts%20of%20sacrilege

2.https://blog.forumias.com/answeredwhat-is-mob-lynching-what-are-
various-reasons-for-a-rise-in-mob-lynching-incidents-in-india-
suggest-some-measures-to-prevent-mob-lynching/

3.Dristy IAS – ht tps://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-

news-analysis/mob-lynching-4

4.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
2021_Lynchings_for_sacrilege_in_Punjab#:~:text=The
%202021%20Lynchings%20for%20sacrilege,to%20alleged%20acts
%20of%20sacrilege.

5. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/youth-lynched-for-
stealing-battery-from-tractor-10-arrested/articleshow/86659324.cms

6.https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7gq8sz
7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jox_CYyitGU
8.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/government-
sets-up-4-member-committee-to-suggest-measures-to-deal-with-mob-
lynching/videoshow/65107450.cms
9. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
10.
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/government-
sets-up-4-member-committee-to-suggest-measures-to-deal-with-mob-
lynching/videoshow/65107450.cms