Centre Should Have Brought Law Against Mob Violence: Mamata Banerjee

The West Bengal assembly on Friday passed a bill against mob violence.

The West Bengal (Prevention of Lynching) Bill, 2019 was tabled in the House on Friday and supported by the opposition Congress and CPI(M).

The BJP, which has emerged as the main opposition party, neither supported nor opposed the bill as it felt that the legislation may be used for settling political scores.

"Lynching is a social evil and all of us have to come together to fight against this evil. The Supreme Court has given direction to take action against lynching," Ms Banerjee said while speaking on Bill in the House.

"The central government should have brought a law against it. But as it is yet to do so we are we are bringing this law in our state to fight against this social evil. We need to raise awareness against the incident of lynchings," she added.

The Bill aims to prevent incidents of mob violence. The legislation proposes a jail term, which may vary from three years to life for those convicted of assaulting and injuring a victim.

In the case of death of the victim, persons responsible for the incident would be punished with rigorous life imprisonment and fine up to Rs 5 lakh, the bill said.