India Tomorrow
Agartala, July 4— In another evidence of the menace of mob lynching fast becoming epidemic, a 36-year-old man was reportedly beaten to death by a mob on the suspicion of being a cattle thief in Tripura’s Dhalai district late Tuesday night. In the last two weeks, at least three people have been lynched – one each in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar.
According to a report in The Indian Express, the incident took place in Manyakumar Para, a remote tribal village in Dhalai district. The deceased has been identified as Budhi Kumar Tripura.
“We were told by some of the local people that few villagers caught Budhi while he was trying to flee. The angry mob beat him black and blue. A team of police personnel from Raishyabari police station received information about the issue and rescued him around 12 midnight. He was admitted to a local hospital where he died from his injuries early morning today,” a duty officer from the state police headquarters told the English daily.
Perhaps, Tripura is the only state which has a compensation scheme for victims of mob violence. The ‘Tripura Lynching/Violence/Mob Violence Compensation Scheme, 2018’ was implemented after the July 2018 order of the Supreme Court. As per the law, the state government should pay Rs. 4 lakh to families of people who die in mob violence, Rs 2 lakh to those with 80 per cent injuries, Rs. 1 lakh in case of 40-80 per cent injuries.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his June 26 speech in Rajya Sabha, had expressed pain on the lynching of Tabrez Ansari in Jharkhand but came down heavily on the Congress for “insulting” Jharkhand state by terming it “hub” of mob lynching. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had used the term in his speech in the same house two days before citing several incidents of mob lynching in the Jharkhand state in the last three years. At least 18 people have been killed in mob lynching in the period in the state. In his speech, PM did not say a word for the state government.
However, in view of the unending chain of mob lynching in different parts of the country, PM should send a stern message to all states to tackle the menace.
After the Jharkhand incident, a man was beaten to death in Malda district of West Bengal by creating a fake theft scene.
Then one was lynched in Bihar’s Vaishali district on suspicion of theft.
