New Delhi: Over 2,900 cases of communal or religious rioting were registered in the country between 2017 and 2021, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday even as he said the government did not have any separate data on mob lynching.
Citing National Crime Records Bureau data, Rai said a total of 378 cases of communal or religious rioting were registered in 2021, 857 in 2020, 438 in 2019, 512 in 2018, and 723 in 2017.
MP Jebi Mather Hisham asked the Ministry of Home Affairs whether the preventive, remedial, and punitive steps have been taken to combat lynching incidents and whether it had the state-wise data of such incidents during the last five years.
To it, Nityanad Rai replied: "In the “Crime in India” report, National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) publishes crime data as provided by all States/Union Territories, under various crime heads which are defined under the Indian Penal Code and Special and Local Laws. No separate data for mob lynching is maintained by NCRB."
Asked whether the Government would make a law to consider lynching a separate offense, as the Supreme Court suggested, Rai in his reply noted: "It is the intention of the Government to comprehensively review the existing Criminal Laws and make them relevant to the contemporary law and order situation as well as to provide speedy justice to the vulnerable sections of the society and create a legal structure which is citizen-centric."
"Government is committed to making comprehensive amendments to criminal laws in consultation with all the stakeholders", he further added.
