Opinion - Editorials   

Vigilantes and rough justice

The brutal lynching of 10 suspected thieves by a mob of villagers in Bihar’s Vaishali district is easily the most atrocious incident of vigilantism in recent times. The horrible crime is compounded by doubts whether the victims (members of a nomadic tribe) were thieves at all and the ghastly manner in which the bodies were disposed — the State police chose to dump them into the Ganga rather than help organise the last rites. The horror at Vaishali focusses worr ying attention on the growing incidence of vigilantism in one of the country’s most lawless States. Late last month, a young man was beaten almost to death by a lynch mob in Bhagalpur after being accused of chain snatching; worse, he was chained to a motorcycle with the help of policemen and was dragged along and humiliated in full view of television cameras. Last week, there were three vigilante attacks in Bihar on a single day. Three suspected motorcycle thieves were brutally assaulted with metal rods and one had his eyes gouged out; two men accused of robbery at a thermal power station were beaten up and later gunned down by unknown persons; and two children were thrashed and paraded with shaven heads for allegedly stealing salt from a grocery store they worked for.

The spate of lynching incidents and the spurt in vigilantism pose uncomfortable questions for the Nitish Kumar government, which assumed office in 2005 on the promise of cracking down on the crime rate. Its failure to stem the wave of crime and restore confidence in the police is an important reason for people taking the law into their own hands. Studies have shown that a rise in vigilantism is usually associated with a rise in crime rates and a loss of faith in the criminal justice system. At the same time, the temptation to take the law into one’s own hand is much greater when people believe they can get away by playing vigilantes. This is why it is extremely important for governments to take a hard line on all kinds of violent vigilantism, paying particular attention to those cases where the punishment meted out is bloody and harsh. Vigilantism is often the handiwork of an unthinking and angry mob, which fails to understand that the revenge it extracts is not just unlawful but is also grossly disproportionate to the crime. In the long run, there are a host of social factors that need to be addressed in order to reduce vigilantism and restore public faith in the criminal justice system. At the immediate level, however, it is important to see the phenomenon for what it is — a criminal activity — and put it down firmly.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Vigilantes and rough justice
Phuket crash, a wake-up call
Great times ahead for Russian aviation
Different strokes of responsibility
The McCann couple and a media storm
Now, children drink bleach on reality TV
Corrections and clarifications
Ramar Sethu row
Shocking
The nuclear deal
Quiet is healthy

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu