Seven persons were lynched because of motivated rumours about child lifting within days of Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das launching 21 projects under Momentum Jharkhand, the 2007 campaign to attract hundreds of crores of investment in the state. Raghubar Das can now have two faces. He may be considered the head of a reformist state. At the same time he may be regarded as one who flouts the rule of law. Some arrests have been made following the lynching but Raghubar Das has to act decisively to prove that he is indeed the head of a progressive state. The rumours of kidnapping which caused the lynching are nothing unfamiliar in the state; nor is the mob action against such rumours. The social media also aggravated public indignation. In 2012, such rumours led to a panic flight of migrant workers from the north-east. However, the recent lynching confirms the impression that those who do it think that they enjoy immunity. Policemen are accustomed to it and on this occasion also did nothing to prevent murder. It was not merely because they were outnumbered. The sinister mind-set was behind it. The campaign against child lifters had started long before actual violence broke out. The authorities had enough time to take preventive action. The counter campaign by the authorities came too late.
Exemplary punishment is the only remedy for this sort of rash lynchings in certain states. Such vigilantism is often supported by the local people. It is considered legitimate for citizens to unleash lethal violence. That of course is a perversion of democracy. Jharkhand is especially prone to such mob violence and the mob taking the law in its own hands. The most rampant cases are the lynching of tribal women accused of witchcraft.