Why in News
In a first for Uttar Pradesh, a trial court in Hapur awarded life imprisonment in a case of cow protection-related lynching of a Muslim man.
Six years earlier, in June 2018, Qasim Qureshi was lynched to death, and Samiuddin was brutally assaulted, by a Hindu group in the Bajhera Khurd village, under the false accusation of cow-slaughter.
The additional district and sessions court judge Shweta Dixit sentenced 10 men to life sentences and fined them ₹59,000 each, under charges of murder, attempt to murder, rioting and promoting religious enmity
Mob lynching
Mob lynching is an act of collective violence perpetrated by a large group of individuals, involving attacks on either a person's body or property, whether in public or private settings.
The group, driven by a belief that the victim has committed some perceived wrongdoing, takes matters into their own hands, disregarding legal rules and procedures in the process.
Mob lynching is a violation of human dignity, Article 21 of the Constitution, and a gross infringement of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Such incidents violate the Right to Equality(Articles 14) and Prohibition of discrimination, (Article 15)
The new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 addresses the serious issue of mob violence, murder, or grievous hurt by five or more than five people on the specified ground, under Section 103.
The grounds may include caste, community, place of birth, sex, race, personal belief, language, or any other.
The steep rise in cow vigilantism in India has occurred on the back of the state’s interest in the campaign to protect cattle from slaughter.
The subsequent violence has blurred the boundaries between vigilantes and the state and has gained legal legitimacy.
Governments in Haryana, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh have amended their cow slaughter prevention laws and set up special task forces to enforce them.
These have allowed cow vigilantes to operate freely, with the state’s sanction and the police’s cognisance.
As a result, judicial processes that punish cow protectionists for their anti-Muslim violence have been rare occurrences.
The two systems that sustain every lynching conviction are the state that enabled it and the processes that legitimised it
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