Can Mob Take the Law in Own Hand?

The country remains savaged even after sixty years of Independence, where people fail to discriminate between a man and a beast. People take the law in their own hands and try to deliver judgment ‘on the spot’. Anger is one short of danger and a handful of people have resorted to anger to bring the ‘right’ in a wrong way. The peculiar conception may have generated because they do not have any faith in judiciary system or felt let down by delayed-justice or perhaps the nexus between police and criminals cropped up in their mind. Whatever it may be, the idea of killing or beating is condemnable. It seems that mob does not care or fear the law and order of the country; otherwise, how do they fearlessly torches vehicles, vandalises houses or shops and even kill helpless people? Are we living in a civilised society, where mob takes over the law and order in their hand to deliver instant justice? Justice does not arrive that fast, it takes its own legal course. The law of the land states that a person, committing crime should first be brought to the custody of police. The police would then produce him before the court. And it is the court, which would decide whether the person is guilty or not.

However, an incident of lawlessness that took place in the Nathanagar area of Bhagalpur in Bihar is brought to light, that depicts how a man is inhumanely tortured by others in a so-called civilised society. A man identified as Mohammad Aurangzeb alias Saleem became the victim of mob fury and the civil authorities remained silent spectator. Forget about helping, the police personal, instead, turned to the shoes of ‘Gundas’ and thrashed him brutally. The candid TV visuals reflected how the people took the law in their own hand and beat Aurangzeb, a chain snatcher, mercilessly. Aurangzeb, who was caught trying to snatch a woman’s chain, was tied with his hand from behind, which, in turn, was tied with a motorcycle and was dragged for 5 Kilometres. The most shocking thing was — it was a policeman, who was riding the motorcycle. On top it, none of the policemen present there did anything to control the violent mob, in complete disregard of their duty.

Speaking to Headlinesindia, Chief Spokesperson of Delhi Police, Dipendra Pathak said, “As far as law is concerned it does not discriminate between police and public. The reason of people being violent is the tit-for-tat mindset and this tactic becomes public sanction”. “The anti-mobbing law, if legislated then the goons might take advantage of this and continue to commit the crime,” he added.

The ostensible question arises here is can a mob take the law in its own hand? Speaking to Headlines India, requesting for anonymity, an advocate of the Supreme Court said, “No one has yet moved a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against lynching or mobbing. Law should be enacted to restrict this act of brutality. Even television media are partly responsible for this because the mob thinks that the camera facing on them would give them instant fame and their act of manhandling would be call as an act of heroism”. The anti-ragging laws, enacted by the Supreme Court have, for instance, brought the whole episode of ragging under control. Nevertheless, the experts opine some similar laws to this effect should be legislated so that no one can take the law in its own hand.

National Human Right Commission, Chairman Justice S Rajendra Babu, speaking to Headlines India, said, “The NHRC has taken suo-motu cognizant of the matter and we have asked for report from the state police authority and if needed we may think of sending our investigating team to Bihar” All said and done that it is an act of human rights violation. Who is violating whose rights? Who is paying the price for such incidents? – Are some unanswered questions that boomerangs into mind of every sensible citizen as life turns as usual from the next moment.

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