New Delhi: The Supreme Court has issued notices to the Centre and police chiefs of six states including Odisha on a public interest litigation (PIL) alleging rising incidents of cow vigilantism and mob lynching against Muslims.
The PIL also demanded compensation for victims in six cases reported over the past two months and raised concerns about the lynching mob violence against Muslim, particularly done by cow vigilantes, despite the apex court guidelines issued in the 2018 Tehseen Poonawala case to prevent and curb such crimes.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and JB Pardiwala issued notice to the Centre and the six states, including Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Odisha, and Maharashtra on the plea filed by the National Federation of Indian Women.
“We will issue notice,” the bench told senior advocate Kapil Sibal who told the Court that while such relief can be sought from the high court, this petition presented six cases of mob lynching and cow vigilantism reported from six different states.
The petition prayed for a “minimum uniform amount” to be paid as compensation to victims, a portion of which to be paid upfront for helping victim families to tide over their immediate needs.
The petition drafted by advocate Rashmi Singh said, “In view of the alarming rise in cases of lynching and mob violence against the Muslim community, the petitioner is seeking a writ in the nature of mandamus to the concerned state authorities to take immediate action in terms of the findings and directions in Tehseen Poonawalla case to effectively contain and deal with the same.”
Noting the “shocking upsurge in incidents of mob violence”, the petition compiled six such instances, with two instances from Maharashtra reported on June 8 and 24, respectively, involving three men who were brutally assaulted for allegedly smuggling beef of whom two died while one is undergoing treatment at a Mumbai hospital.
There were two other instances related to mob violence in Bhubaneshwar (Odisha) and Kota (Rajasthan) presented in the petition. In one such incident which took place on June 17, the petition described the violent attack on two Muslim men in Odisha who were restrained using ropes, subjected to assault, humiliated and forced to walk through piles of garbage.
