In the Tezu town of Arunachal Pradesh, a mob dragged out two persons from the police station who were responsible for the rape and murder of a 5-year-old and beat them to death. 

The incident

The police said the duo Sanjay Sobor, 30, and Jagdish Lohar, 25, were dragged out of the police station by an angry mob and were taken to a market place where they were lynched.

“The incident took place at 12:05 pm. A mob of nearly 1,000 people attacked the police lockup and took away the two accused. Some policemen have also sustained injuries in the attack,” said Apur Bitin, DIG (Eastern Range), Arunachal Pradesh police, as reported by Hindustan Times.

Three police officers who were unable to stop the mob have been suspended. A police inspector has been transferred.

Background 

On February 12, a five-year-old girl was abducted from Namgo village, in Lohit district of Arunachal Pradesh. On February 17, the dead body of the child, along with her severed head, was found in a tea-garden. Investigations revealed that she was raped, then murdered. Sanjay Sobor confessed to raping and murdering the child and said that he borrowed a machete from Jagdish to kill the child.

On February 19, a mob gathered outside the police station and overpowering the police, dragged the accused out of the police station and killed them. The police have registered a case against unknown persons. No arrests have been made.

Chief minister Pema Khandu termed the rape and murder of the minor girl as “barbaric and inhuman” and termed Monday’s incident of the mob killing the two accused as “unfortunate”.

“Our laid down rules and regulations do not allow us to take the law into our hands,” said Khandu while ordering a police inquiry into today’s incident.

The Logical Indian take

No matter how heinous a crime is, mobs should not take law into their own hands and lynch someone. But, we also have to understand why such incidents take place in our country. The Indian Penal Code (IPC) has no mention of the word ‘lynching’, and any such case is covered under Section 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 323 (causing voluntary hurt) 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting armed with deadly weapons) and 149 (unlawful assembly). Furthermore, Section 223 (a) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), 1973, says, “persons accused of the same offence committed in the course same transaction can be tried together.” But, this still doesn’t clarify how the perpetrators will be tried and the retribution thereof.

Lynchings take place because our existing justice system has failed and the ones resorting to mob justice have no fear of the law.