The incident reported from Ramban District where a person has gone missing after being allegedly assaulted by some cow vigilantes and is believed to have fallen into a stream needs a thorough probe and strict legal action against the culprits. No one has the right to take the law into his or her own hands. Even if the missing person was committing a crime, more precisely, bovine smuggling, the people were not having any right to assault him. Instead, they could have informed the police to take action under the law of the land.
It is the right time that the Ramban District administration should probe the case by identifying the criminals who have committed this crime in the name of cow vigilantism. There is a rule of law in J&K and such incidents where the people indulge in violence in full public view without any fear of police, paint a grim picture about the state of affairs in the region.
It is important to note that Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2017, when the cases of cow vigilantes’ involvement in violence were at peak, had issued a stern warning to cow vigilante groups saying no one can take law into their own hands. Reportedly, PM Modi has asked states to take strict action against those violating law in the name of cow protection. “No person or group can be allowed to take the law into their own hands”, he had asserted while adding that there is a law on cow protection in the country but committing crimes in the name of cow protection cannot be tolerated.
All said and done, the administration in J&K’s Ramban district should do the needful in the aforesaid matter to regain public trust that they are not living in a ‘banana republic’ where there is no sense of law and order and people can decide by themselves, what is right and what is not, and deliver justice by bypassing the police and the judiciary.
No one can deny that for a peaceful and just society, the law should be upheld at all costs. It is the solemn duty of people at the helm to ensure that this incident is not allowed to fade away without accountability. A swift and fair investigation, and bringing those responsible to justice, should be the sole aim of the administration at the moment as anything less would mean justice is not delivered.
