Mobocracy hijacking rule of law
Police, Judge and Executioner
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: August 21, 2012 -

A five year old girl child murdered.

A couple lynched by an irate mob in retaliation.

Either way it does not speak well of society as a whole.

It also does not reflect well on the State.

Mob mentality is difficult to understand and predict but when people start taking the law into their own hands, under the impression that it is dispensing instant justice, then it is a sure sign of a deep rooted social malady.

A corrupt, ineffective and inefficient law enforcing agency is most likely to feed such a malady.

Other than the killers themselves no one knows who killed five year old Miranda.

Other than the killers no one will actually know whether Suranjoy and his wife Amutombi were involved in the murder of the little child or not.

What however is clear is that no mob can be the dispenser of justice.

In many ways the triple tragedy at Wabagai Tentha Thambal Chingya was nothing less than an extension of what the State has been witnessing down the years.

Houses of accused dismantled and razed to the ground, family members of accused given the marching order, read expelled from the locality by a Kangaroo court, moral cops raiding restaurants and parading young girls and boys before the public for allegedly indulging in immoral activities and clearly the definition of an anarchic State fits Manipur to a T.

A fit case for research scholars or social scientists to study.

Mobocracy can come only at the expense of Government institutions and this goes beyond the mere question of some people taking the law into their hands but challenges the very legitimacy of the elected Government.

Not surprisingly the parents of Suranjoy have urged for an impartial probe and in praying for justice, certain questions have emerged such as what the police did when Miranda was first reported missing.

The contention of the parents that their son and daughter-in-law may not have met such a gruesome end, if the police had picked up Suranjoy as a suspect, may fall in the realm of speculations but there is nonetheless food for thought here.

Why did the police not act when Suranjoy was named as a suspect by some persons of the locality, especially given the growing mob culture in the State.

It may not be thumb rule of police investigation, but common sense says that the first vital information can be culled from the local people but then common sense has become the most uncommon aspect of all that represents the Government and the police does not appear to be an exception.

The JAC formed in connection with the murder of Miranda had a point when it questioned why Suranjoy was not picked up for questioning.

This would have served two vital purposes.

One to get any information and two, it would have averted a mob taking the law into its hand.

The motive is anybody's guess but theft does not appear to be on the agenda as the silver chain of the little girl was found on the road near Suranjoy's residence, as per a report submitted to the police.

Whatever the case maybe, it is time society and the State start introspecting why neighbours, local people, who knew each other so well, should suddenly turn into a blood thirsty lot and don the role of police, Judge and the executioner.