india

Updated: Aug 31, 2019 00:49 IST

The West Bengal assembly on Friday passed the (Prevention of Lynching) Bill 2019, providing for life imprisonment to those injuring a person and capital punishment for causing death. The bill was passed by a voice vote. The Left and the Congress supported the Bill, however, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) opposed it.

Placing the bill in the house, chief minister Mamata Banerjee announced that her government is also contemplating compensation of up to Rs. 5 lakh for the victims and a job for victim’s kin.

“Lynching is a social evil and all of us have to come together to fight against this evil. The Supreme Court has given direction to take action against lynching. The central government should have brought a law against it. But as it is yet to do so, we are bringing this law in our state to fight against this social evil. We need to raise awareness against incidents of lynching,” Banerjee said while tabling the Bill.

BJP legislature party leader Manoj Tigga said the party opposed the Bill. “We do not support mob lynching but we have a strong suspicion that the new legislation will be used against the opposition, particularly the BJP,” Tigga said.

Tigga pointed out that the Bill mentions that whoever takes part in a conspiracy to lynch another person or abets an act of lynching shall be “punished in the same manner as the person who committed lynching”, and claimed that this provision might be used against political opponents by the ruling party.

“Our leaders, including the state unit president, are frequently coming under attack from TMC goons. Are these not cases of mob lynching? We suspect that the Bill has been brought to be used only when people belonging to a particular community come under attack,” he added.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) legislator Sujan Chakraborty said, “We supported the Bill because it is against mob lynching. However, the Bill has loopholes and there is no provision for holding government officers concerned accountable, if necessary. We wanted it to be sent to the select committee.”

Leader of the Opposition Abdul Mannan of the Congress, who supported the bill, hoped it will not be misused

When the bill was first circulated among lawmakers on Wednesday, it provided for life imprisonment as the maximum punishment for such crimes. However, the legislation that was circulated and passed on Friday had death sentence as the ultimate penalty.

The Bill defined lynching as “any act or series of acts of violence or aiding, abetting or attempting an act of violence, whether spontaneous or planned, by a mob on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth, language, dietary practices, sexual orientation, political affiliation, ethnicity or any other ground.”

(With Agency inputs)