25 May 2024: In a tragic incident in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district, a 40-year-old Muslim man, Mishrikhan Baloch, was allegedly beaten to death by a group of five men claiming to be cow vigilantes. The incident took place on Thursday when Baloch was transporting two buffaloes to a livestock market in a pickup van.
According to reports, Baloch was accompanied by another man, Hussainkhan Baloch, who managed to escape and subsequently filed the complaint. The police have registered a case against the accused under various sections related to murder, unlawful restraint, rioting, and rioting with deadly weapons.
The Indian Express reported that one of the accused, Akherajsingh Parbatsingh Vaghela, was previously implicated in another cow vigilante-related violence case last July and had served time in jail. The Gujarat High Court had previously overturned Vaghela’s custody in that case.
Authorities have arrested two of the five suspects and are searching for the remaining three. However, local police have denied that Baloch’s death was a result of mob lynching, asserting that the incident stemmed from a longstanding dispute between the parties involved.
This incident raises concerns about the enforcement of a 2018 Supreme Court ruling, which mandated state governments to implement preventive and remedial measures to curb mob violence. Critics argue that some states might be reclassifying mob lynching incidents as disputes or accidents to evade their responsibilities under this ruling.
There is growing anxiety over the impact of cow vigilante violence on Muslim and Dalit communities, with many vigilantes reportedly linked to militant Hindu groups affiliated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
While Indian law does not specifically criminalize mob lynching, the recently enacted Indian Penal Code, effective from July, stipulates life imprisonment or the death penalty for group violence committed on grounds of race, caste, community, gender, place of birth, language, personal beliefs, or similar bases.
