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Court asks Indian government to denounce cow vigilantes

Supreme Court seeks report on incidents of cow vigilantism as government argues law and order is provincial issue

21.07.2017 - Update : 21.07.2017
Court asks Indian government to denounce cow vigilantes FILE PHOTO

By Shuriah Niazi

NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Indian government to not support violence in the name of protecting cows -- an animal considered sacred in the Hindu religion.

It also sought a report from the government within four weeks over incidents of violence committed on the pretext of protecting cows.

A bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra heard a public interest litigation on violence by cow vigilante groups in different parts of the country.

Social activist Tehseen Poonawalla filed a petition in August last year, asking the apex court to direct the government to take action against groups that allegedly commit crimes against Muslims and Dalits -- the bottom caste in the Hindu caste system.

Presenting the government’s case, Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar told the court that law and order was a state matter and New Delhi did not have a say in it.

“However, the government does not support any kind of vigilantism by private persons,” he said.

India has seen increased incidents of mob lynching over beef rumors in recent months. Last month, a mob stabbed to death a 16-year-old Muslim man, Junaid Khan, on a train to Mathura city from New Delhi, accusing him of carrying bags of beef.

In a similar incident also last month, a 45-year-old Muslim trader was killed by a mob of more than 100 people in Jharkhand’s Ramgarh district on suspicion of carrying beef in his car.

This April, the Supreme Court had asked the government and six states as to why they had not banned cow vigilante groups.

The governments of Gujarat and Jharkhand informed the court that appropriate action had been taken against those involved in violence.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, from the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, has called for tough action against such groups, adding that violence incidents should not be given communal color.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court suspended a ban on the cattle trade in India, saying it affected thousands of livelihoods.

Cows are considered sacred in the Hindu religion. After Modi came to power in 2014, many states in the country enacted harsher laws against cow slaughter.

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