RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, Dec.21: The Jharkhand assembly today introduced and passed the ‘Prevention of Mob Violence and Mob Lynching Bill, 2021’ within an hour without accepting any major amendments suggested by the main opposition party BJP and ignoring the demand of other legislators for a discussion on it in the house.
The bill aims at providing effective protection of constitutional rights and prevention of mob violence. It includes provisions like registering an FIR for disseminating “explosive and irresponsible” content, providing free medical care to victims and punishment for creating a “hostile environment” for victims or witnesses. It also sets out a maximum punishment of life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 25 lakh for anyone found guilty of lynching or its abatement.
With this development, Jharkhand has become third Indian state – after West Bengal and Rajasthan – to have passed a dedicated anti-lynching bill.
Meanwhile, as the process of passing the bill was on, BJP legislator Amit Mandal termed it a tool of appeasement while Amar Kumar Bouri suspected it to be ‘sooli par chadhane wala kala kanoon’( black law paving the path of capital punishment).
On the other hand, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Alamgir Alam justified the law saying it was being done in accordance with the suggestion of the apex court of the country.
Alam did not accept the suggestion of changing the definition of mob in the bill. They wanted ‘two or more’ as the definition of mob by a large unruly crowd besides others.
Before the bill was passed, assembly speaker Rabindranath Mahto suspended Hazaribagh MLA Manish Jaiswal till the end of winter session of the house for his act of tearing the assembly paper while talking about the scam and bungling in JPSC PT.
Though BJP legislator C.P.Singh, Amit Mandal and others took strong exception, the speaker justified his action in the interest of maintaining the dignity of the house and stop creation of wrong precedence for the house.
