The victim in the picture is Ravi Kumar, a student in his 20s who allegedly killed his friend Om Prakash over a quarrel about a cell phone in Hajipur's Pokhra neighbourhood, 30km from the state capital, Patna. After being beaten up by Om's relatives following his death, Ravi was taken to hospital under police custody. The mob then waited outside the hospital before snatching him from the police. They beat him with bamboo sticks and bricks and kicked him repeatedly. At one point he fell to the ground but things didn't stop there. Some people hit his head with bricks. Ravi was taken to a local hospital in Hajipur and later shifted to the Patna Medical College. He's currently recovering.

People on the street are fed up with the delay in the delivery of justice. [Ravi's assault happened] on the same day the Indian President Pratibha Patil called for the need to speed up the trial process. Earlier that week I also heard that a mob nearly beat a man to death accused of stealing a gold chain in Bhagalpur, in the same region. Apparently two policemen were involved in dragging him along the ground from a motorcycle. The crowds will beat victims with rods, bricks; whatever they can lay their hands on. One man had one of his eyes gouged out with a sharp iron tool in Nawada, also in the Bihar region, in September.

Most cases like this end in death, while the police stand by mute, or even encourage the mob. Policemen in villages aren't armed and there is no back up service either. It's a scary place to be in [for the police]. And in some areas like the Begusarai district of Bihar, police and locals both blame each other for deaths.

These incidences of vigilante justice are not only limited to villages. The mob mentality has crossed the boundary into towns and cities now."

Indian society is changing. One direction is in the spread of democracy, which means that people expect their anxieties and concerns to be addressed. Sometimes when they're ignored, they find expression in taking it upon themselves to punish suspects. Of course, what they do is not democratic, but then the awareness of democratic norms has not spread as fast as the awareness of democracy. This might happen faster if those who take the law in to their own hands face punishment.

We have no data on the socio-economic background of those who have taken the law into their hands in this manner. My best guess is that the common man does not resort to such actions as he is too aware of the consequences. It's the powerful who would be found to be the perpetrators of such cases. I wouldn't blame the media. But because of its nature, no real understanding of the event emerges. At least in some cases the media should explore the incident in greater detail. It should also look into how law and order has been enforced and who they've tried to protect."