Police in some States are recording mob lynching cases as brawls or accidents, Supreme Court told

Hearing a petition filed by the National Federation of Indian Women, which specified nearly 50 hate crimes since the passing of the 2018 judgment in Tehseen Poonawalla case, where state action was either absent or inadequate, a bench led by justice BR Gavai noted that the list of cases did not include the brutal murder of a tailor, Kanhaiya Lal, in Rajasthan’s Udaipur in 2022. The incident was linked to a hate crime as the two Muslim killers walked into Lal’s shop and slit his throat as he had supported a social media post profaning Prophet Muhammad.

“What about that tailor Kanhaiya Lal in Rajasthan who was lynched? Have you highlighted it in your petition?” asked the bench that also comprised justices Aravind Kumar and Sandeep Mehta. Advocate Nizam Pasha, appearing for the petitioner, admitted that the petition did not contain the incident and agreed to examine that incident as well.

Senior advocate Archana Pathak Dave, appearing for the Gujarat government, told the court that the petition only talked about hate crimes against Muslims and this explained why the Kanhaiya Lal incident was not mentioned.