GUWAHATI, June 19 - Expressing concern at the mob lynching cases reported from different parts of the State in recent times, NGO Save Guwahati Build Guwahati (SGBG) has demanded a stringent law to ensure befitting punishment to perpetrators of such heinous crimes.
Referring to a number of cases where the victims were thrashed to death by the miscreants, the NGO said that many a time, such perpetrators manage to escape as they form part of a mob.
Seven years back Jhankar Saikia was lynched by a mob in the heart of Diphu town. After a long period of seven years, in February last, the Diphu Court convicted 12 persons and sentenced them to life imprisonment, SGBG said. Two years back two youths Abhijeet Nath and Nilotpal Das were killed mercilessly by a violent mob in Dokmoka on suspicion of being child-lifters. Similarly, 73-year-old Dr Deben Datta was killed by a mob of tea garden labourers in Teok. A few weeks back, poor vegetable vendor Sanatan Deka was brutally assaulted by five people near Hajo, and he later died in the hospital. A week after this incident on May 29 a young college student Debashish Gogoi was lynched by a mob near Mariani in Jorhat district in front of his father and sister. On June 12, one Rituparna Pegu�s killing at Noonmati in the heart of the capital city shocked Guwahati and the entire State. Referring to these incidents, SGBG president Krishno K Borooah and vice president Ajoy Dutta alleged that the government remained a silent spectator in all the instances.
There is an immediate need to enact a stringent anti-mob-lynching law so that the situation does not go out of hand, SGBG said and referred to the slew of directions given by the Supreme Court to the state governments in July, 2017 to prevent and deal with such offences. It said that while Manipur, West Bengal and Rajasthan have already enacted anti-lynching laws after the SC�s directions, Assam too should enact a similar law immediately to deal with such crimes.
