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NEW DELHI: A panel of secretaries, formed to look into the possibility of enacting a law against lynching, has submitted its report to a group of ministers (GoM) headed by home minister Rajnath Singh, sources said on Wednesday.

Sources added that the committee of secretaries under the leadership of home secretary Rajiv Gauba had held consultations with a cross-section of society and other stakeholders before submitting its report to the GoM.

The GoM will now analyse the report and submit its recommendations to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a final decision, a home ministry official said.

According to the sources, the panel is learnt to have suggested that the existing provisions in the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and criminal procedure code (CrPC) should be tightened by inserting new clauses.

The officials refused to divulge the exact details of suggestions made by the secretaries.

The GoM panel members are external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj , transport minister Nitin Gadkari, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and social justice and empowerment minister Thawar Chand Gehlot .

The move came after nearly 40 people were lynched in nine states in the past one year.

Last month, the home ministry issued advisories to states and union territories following Supreme Court’s directive to check incidents of lynching.

The centre asked the states to appoint an officer in each district at the level of Superintendent of Police; set up a special task force to gather intelligence, and closely monitor social media contents to prevent mob attacks on suspicion of being child-lifters or cattle smugglers.

The MHA had said that incidents of violence and lynching by mobs in some parts of the country fuelled by various kinds of rumours and unverified news such as child lifting, theft, cattle smuggling etc, are a matter of serious concerns.

Such instances of persons taking the law in their hands run against the basic tenets of the rule of law, it said.

“All state governments, UT administrations and their law enforcement agencies are requested to implement the directions of the Supreme Court in letter and spirit,” it said.

