Bhubaneswar: Director General of Crime Branch (CB) of Odisha Police, Vinaytosh Mishra, Monday said the police would not hesitate to invoke the mob lynching section of the BNS in the case of the GRP constable beaten to death by a mob for allegedly attempting to rape a woman.
Mishra said this after criticism from different quarters that the police booked the 11 people arrested so far in the killing of GRP constable Soumya Ranjan Swain on charge of murder (section 103(1) of the BNS) and not under specific provisions to deal with mob lynching (section 103(2) of BNS).
The victim’s father, Dhusasana Swain, in his complaint, had also mentioned that a group of people had killed his son following the attempt to rape allegations against his son.
Clarifying the police stand, DG (Crime Branch) said that Section 103(2) of the BNS dealing with mob lynching applies when five or more persons, acting in concert, commit murder on grounds such as race, caste, community, sex, place of birth, language, personal belief, or similar grounds.
However, the DG said, “According to FIR lodged by the victim’s family, there is no reference to alleged killing on the basis of race, caste, community, sex, place of birth, language, personal belief, or similar grounds. Therefore, Section 103 (2) is not applicable in this case. However, during the investigation, if such a matter comes to fore, the police will not hesitate to invoke provision of the Section 103 (2) of the BNS.”
Replying to a question on the number of arrest remain confined to only 11 persons, the DG explained that there was a group of people standing at the site May 7. But all those present could not be booked for murder.
“We will certainly book the people from the mob after getting their prima facie involvement in the murder,” he said.
The 32-year-old GRP constable was allegedly beaten to death by a group of people near Ramachandrapur bridge under Balianta police limits, on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar, May 7, after Swain physically assaulted two women, and one woman accused him of attempting to rape her.
Meanwhile, a team of the Crime Branch met the two women, who were allegedly physically assaulted and one of them was subjected to an attempt to rape by the deceased GRP constable.
