NEW DELHI, July 24 (Xinhua) -- Taking note of increasing number of incidents of mob lynching in the country, in general, and the furore in the past couple of weeks, in particular, the government of India has set up a high-level panel to look into such incidents and report within four weeks, an official statement said.
Headed by the country's home secretary, a high-ranking government official who directly reports to home minister on matter of internal security, the panel also consists of senior officials from ministries of legal affairs, social justice and empowerment, department of justice, and department of legislation.
Meanwhile, the government is also mulling setting up a group of ministers (GoM) to deliberate into the recommendations of the high-level committee once submitted with the government.
According to the statement, the GoM would constitute of minister of external affairs, minister of road transport highways and shipping, minister of water resources, minister of rural development, minister of law and justice, and minister of social justice and empowerment. The GoM will subsequently submit their recommendations to the prime minister.
Showing concerns over the incidents of violence by mobs in some parts of the country, the statement said that the government had already condemned such incidents and made its stand clear in the parliament that it was committed to upholding the rule of law and adopting effective measures to curb such incidents.
Taking a strong note of the rising incidents of mob lynching involving victims suspected of acts like cow smuggling or child lifting in several parts of the country, the county's apex court - Supreme Court of India had only last week asked the union government to frame strict laws to deal with such incidents.
The latest incident of mob lynching was reported from Alwar, a district in western state of Rajasthan where a man named Akbar Khan was allegedly lynched by a group of people on the suspicion of cow smuggling last Friday.
