The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Rajasthan government to apprise it of the action the state has taken in a lynching case in Alwar district in July. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra, Justice A.M. Khanwilkar and Justice D.Y. Chandrachud asked the Principal Secretary of the state’s Home Department to file an affidavit on a plea seeking contempt of court proceedings against the state government.
It sought the affidavit on the action taken to prevent future incidents of lynching. Asking for the affidavit to be filed in one week, the court posted the matter for the next hearing on August 30. Senior advocate Indira Jaising, appearing for petitioner Tehseen Poonawala, had sought the initiation of contempt of court proceedings against the state government, contending just a few days after the apex court’s directions on the lynching incident in Alwar.
The bench asked the Rajasthan government whether any disciplinary action has been taken against the police officers who allegedly took three hours to reach a hospital with a badly injured man accused of smuggling cows. The counsel appearing for Rajasthan told the bench that action has been taken. The central and state governments have come under sharp criticism from the top court over frequent lynching incidents across the country.
The court had condemned the mob lynching incidents and suggested enactment of a law in Parliament to deal with the crime that threatens the rule of law and the country’s social fabric. Rakbar Khan, 28, was beaten to death by suspected cow vigilantes in Alwar district on July 24. Alwar had earlier also witnessed similar attacks in the name of cow protectionism. The latest killing comes more than a year after Pehlu Khan was murdered allegedly by some cow vigilantes in April 2017.
