Supreme Court takes note of Alwar mob lynching incident, asks Rajasthan govt to file response about action taken

The Supreme Court on Monday took note of the 20 July lynching incident in Rajasthan’s Alwar district after it had issued a slew of directions on dealing with cow vigilantism and asked the state government to file its response detailing what action has been taken in the case. A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked the principal secretary of the Home department of the state government to file a counter affidavit giving details of the action taken in the lynching case and satisfy the court that they had abided by the directions given by Supreme Court. [caption id=“attachment_4999871” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Facebook/ @PoliceRajasthan[/caption] According to CNN-News18, the Rajasthan government has been also asked to file a specific affidavit regarding the death of the victim, Rakbar Khan. The Rajasthan government has ten days to file a complete response to the matter on how the victim died and what was the role of the police officials and how the culpability has been passed on to the errant cops. Counsel Indira Jaisingh requested to the court that criminal action should be taken against policemen who failed to take the victim to a hospital on time, reported Bar and bench. Jaising, appearing for the petitioner, also asked the court to summon the principal secretary of Rajasthan government and question him over the reason for the delay in following the apex court’s previous order on lynching, reported Zee News. Khan (28) was allegedly beaten by cow vigilantes in Alwar district’s Ramgarh area on 20 July when he was leading two cows from Ladpura village to his home to Haryana. The bench was hearing a contempt plea filed by Tushar Gandhi and Congress leader Tehseen Poonawala seeking contempt action against the Rajasthan government in the mob lynching case at Alwar. They alleged that incidents of mob lynching and vigilantism were taking place despite the apex court verdict in this regard. The Supreme Court had on 17 July said “horrendous acts of mobocracy” cannot be allowed to overrun the law of the land and asked Parliament to consider enacting a new law to sternly deal with mob lynching and cow vigilantism, warning that such incidents may rise like a “Typhon-like monster” across the country. The court had also issued a slew of directions to the government to provide “preventive, remedial and punitive measures” to deal with offences like mob violence and cow vigilantism. The apex court on Monday asked all other state governments to file a compliance report on steps taken by 7 September. The court has now posted the matter for further hearing on 30 August. With inputs from PTI