Street Justice Takes Hold In Northern India

Vigilante justice appears to have become the order of the day in the lawless northern Indian state of Bihar.

The latest incident in which 10 men suspected to be thieves were lynched by a group of villagers in Vaishali district underscored the people's frustration with the police. The villagers said that they were fed up with rising theft for the last two months in spite of informing the police regularly.

The villagers of Vaishali are not the only ones to dish out vigilante justice to suspected thieves and burglars in Bihar. Two weeks ago, in bustling Bhagalpur town, a mob nearly beat to death a man who was accused of snatching a gold chain from a woman.

What was more shocking was the fact that the incident took place in the presence of two policemen who were filmed by a local news channel dragging the man on their motorcycle.

On September 9 alone, there were three particularly horrific cases of public lynchings and beatings. First, three suspected motorcycle thieves were caught by villagers in Nawada district and brutally beaten up with sticks, stones and metal rods. The enraged mob even gouged out an eye of one of the suspects, Tinku Singh, with a pointed iron tool. The three men were taken to hospital.

Then, two men caught stealing material at a thermal power station in Begusarai district were beaten up by locals in the presence of policemen. They were later shot dead by unknown persons - and the locals said the police had fired on them. The police deny killing the men.

And in Nawada district, two children, aged 13 and 12 years, were beaten up by locals and paraded with their heads shaved for allegedly stealing salt and detergents from a local grocery where they were employed.

Such mob anger is not restricted to the villages alone. About six months ago, people in the Sultanganj area in the state capital, Patna, lynched a suspected criminal in full public view.

Earlier, three alleged criminals were nearly beaten to death in the posh Rajendra Nagar of the capital. The police arrived and allegedly shot them dead in front of a cheering mob.

Bihar has been India's most lawless state for many years now, and a change in government two years ago doesn't seem to have improved matters much. Even after the government tried to restore sagging public confidence in the police with a range of new measures - speedy trials, giving police a free hand to conduct investigations and appointing new officers in many districts - crime remains stubbornly high. More than 2,000 people were abducted in the state in the first half of this year. Bihar opposition leader Shyam Rajak says people have "no option, but to lynch criminals" when crime is so high.