New Delhi: A group of ministers (GoM), headed by home minister Rajnath Singh, appointed to examine the recommendations of a committee of secretaries to help check incidents of lynching in the country held its first meeting on Wednesday. The GoM will give its final report to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issues.

The committee, headed by home secretary Rajiv Gauba, had submitted its report to the GoM last week. One of the key recommendations made by the committee was to initiate action against the top brass of social media platforms in the country in case they fail to check the spread of fake and hate messages or news. In addition, the committee had also suggested some chan-ges in the existing provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Code of Criminal Procedure (CrP-C) making them more stringent to check lynching incidents. The committee, however, sources added, has not recommended any new law to check the crime.

Sources said the GoM is likely to finalise its recommendations within this month before they are sent to the PMO to take a final decision on the issue as amendments to the existing criminal laws will have to be cleared by the Parliament.

Apart from Mr Singh, who heads the GoM, other members of the important panel are external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, transport minister Nitin Gadkari, law minister

Ravi Shankar Prasad and social justice and empowerment minister Thawar Chand Gehlot. The Centre had constituted the committee of secretaries to suggest measures to check lynching after 40 people were killed in these incidents in at least nine states over a period of one year.

Following the killings, the home ministry had issued at least two advisories to states and Union Territories in July, particularly in the wake of the Supreme Court also issuing some directives to check such incidents.

In the advisories, the home ministry had suggested appointing nodal officers of the rank of superintendent of police in each district, strengthening intelligence gathering mechanism, setting up of a special task force and monitoring of social media to check mob violence.

The home ministry has also asked the states to ensure that all directions of the Supreme Court are followed in “letter and spirit.”