Filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan demands law against mob lynching

Award-winning filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan has urged the Centre to enact a new law to stop incidents of mob killings stating that any "responsible government" would have taken action on the issue.

"The court of law can take up a case based on that letter written to the Prime Minister. Very responsible citizens have written this letter and people who visualize this nation as a democracy where you have space of plural opinions. Just because the opinions we expressed does not fall in line with the government does not mean that they are against the nation," he told reporters here on Thursday.

A case of sedition was filed in a Bihar court against Gopalakrishnan along with 48 signatories of an open letter sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July that expressed concern over growing incidents of mob killings

"We mentioned the mob lynching of poor people... The mob attacked them and then asked to chant Jai Shri Ram. It is a terrible thing to use Rama's name as a war cry. We raised an issue that is to be addressed by the administration and people in power...Any responsible government would have taken the action on the issue. Instead, there have been a dozen cases against people who wrote the letter," Gopalakrishnan.

The filmmaker said that accused of mob killings should be given strict punishment like capital punishment.

"If the law is insufficient to deal with those problems then you should create a new law. Mob killings will increase because they know that they will not be punished. Each of them deserved to be punished. The accused should get capital punishment, not just any punishment," he said.

Several incidents of mob lynching took place across the country including the alleged killing of a Muslim youth in Jharkhand on the suspicion of theft that drew national outrage.

On June 18, Tabrez Ansari, a Muslim youth, was assaulted by a mob in Kharsawan district of Jharkhand on suspicion of theft. He later succumbed to his injuries at a hospital four days later.