“A criminal must NOT go unpunished, but at the same time, only law can decide his/her fate. Nobody else. It is wrong for a criminal to walk free, but it is even worse when an innocent is punished for no fault”. In civilized societies Governments empower police to protect citizens and provide a system of laws and courts to administer justice. When people start to feel the law can’t provide justice, they take it into their own hands. But there are some situations where angry citizens have tried to take justice into their own hands and things turned ugly. Have a look!

1. Innocent man burned to death by vigilante neighbours who mistook him for paedophile

Bijan Ebrahimi, 44, took pictures of youths vandalising his flower baskets to give the images to police as evidence. But a neighbour saw him with a camera and reported him as a paedophile. Police arrested Mr Ebrahimi but let him go when they realised the mistake. But two days after his release he was attacked by vigilante neighbours.

2. Dalit people killed in Khairlanji Massacre in Maharashtra in 2006

Four member of one dalit family was slaughtered on 29th September 29th, 2006 in bhandara district. Dalit members were killed by the members of a caste called Kunbi, which was a dominant in this case. The women of the Dalit family were paraded naked in public before being murdered.

3. Neighbours tried to scare away the pedophile in their town by setting his house on fire

In 2007, Timothy Carl Chandler, 53, of 295 Butler Lane in Helenwood was arrested Monday afternoon by Scott County authorities on two felony counts associated with his alleged possession of child pornographic material. Two Scott County men took the law into their own hands. They admitted to setting a fire that killed a woman.

4. In 2004, 200 angry women killed a rapist Akku Yadav with stones and chilli powder

Rapist Akku Yadav was lynched by a mob of around 200 women from Kasturba Nagar. Chilli powder was thrown in his face and stones hurled. As he flailed and fought, one of his alleged victims hacked off his penis with a vegetable knife.

5. Girl Thrashes ‘Eve-Teaser’ Inside Police Station

Recently, this girl was in news for beating up an eve-teaser in the police station where the police filmed her beating the guy. Some might say that the man deserved it, but was what she did lawful?

6. Afghan Woman beaten to death for allegedly burning Quran pages

Afghan woman had been stoned to death in Kabul for supposedly burning a Qur’an in a shrine. The video of her burning was all over the internet. On investigation, no evidences of burning the Quran pages were found.

7. 16-year-old girl viciously beaten, burned to death by a mob in Guatemala

A 16 year old girl has been beaten and burned to death in Guatemala by a lynch mob, after she was accused of killing 68-year-old taxi driver. She was caught by the mob while trying to flee from the spot.

8. 13-Year-Old Allegedly Killed By Classmates For ‘Eve Teasing.’ Is This Really Justice?

In another incident of people taking the law into their own hands, a 13-year-old student, Kiran Goraksh Sonawane, was killed by his classmates inside their school premises because he stared at a girl. The child’s head was “smashed against a bench and later, against a tree.”

9. Dimapur Mob Lynching case

A mob of 7,000-8,000 people reached the ramshackle building that serves as the central jail, dragged a rape accused and beat him to death. Investigation of a CCTV footage showed the girl entering and leaving the room with the accused. It was proved that the woman falsely accused the man for rape, for something which was a consensual sex for ₹5000. The mob assaulted him throughout the stretch of over eight kilometres and finally hung him from the city tower.

These tragic cases prove why it’s wrong to take justice into our own hands.