The lynching of a railway police constable by a mob on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar has brought severe disrepute to the Mohan Majhi government. Occurring soon after the deeply disturbing ‘proof of death’ walk by a man who felt distressed enough to carry his dead sister’s skeletal remains to a bank, the latest incident deals a double blow for Odisha’s BJP government. Widely-circulated images of the frenzied crowd’s barbaric act, including those of the policeman hung from a pole, indicated that all was not well with the state’s law and order.
The mob captured the constable following allegations of sexual assault on two women. The abominable act that followed played out in the presence of other police personnel. He was beaten to a pulp and then carried on a pick-up van to a hospital, where he was declared dead. When the incident was first reported as a road mishap, the police control room sent a small team that could only watch the situation spiral out of control. Senior IPS officers did not turn up even hours after the incident. An angry Majhi later hauled the police top brass over the coals and handed the probe to the crime branch. However, the suspension of four cops and removal of two home guards is a knee-jerk reaction for an incident that requires a deeper reckoning.
It must not be lost on the Majhi government that mob-lynching is an extremely grave issue across India and the country’s new criminal laws devote a separate provision for it. While many other states have grappled with the rise of such brutal violence, it was largely absent in Odisha. But in recent months, similar acts have been reported from Balasore and Sambalpur districts, too. Sweeping them under the carpet will make matters worse and eventually blow up in the face of the administration. Stringent action is needed to curb the menace. In the latest case, however, the fault clearly lies with the senior police administration, whose lack of empathy and alacrity aggravated the outcome. Finding scapegoats will not serve the purpose. The state government must fix accountability and it must start from the top.
