The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Rajasthan government on the mob violence against a man in Alwar district days after a scathing order against such incidents in July, PTI reported. The man had died within hours of the assault, allegedly in police custody.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra asked the principal secretary of the state’s home department for an affidavit on the action taken by the government within a week. The court asked all state governments to file a compliance report on the steps taken by them on its order against mob violence by September 7.

The bench was hearing a petition seeking contempt action against Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh governments for non-compliance of the court’s directions to curb mob lynching.

On July 3, the top court had said it was up to the states to prevent incidents of mob violence and cow vigilantism. Two weeks later, the court told Parliament that mobocracy cannot be allowed in society and asked it to consider creating a new penal provision to deal with incidents of vigilantism. The court also gave several directions to the government to provide “preventive, remedial and punitive measures” in such cases.

However, days after the order, on July 20, some villagers in Alwar district allegedly attacked 28-year-old Rakbar Khan while he was transporting cattle to Haryana. They suspected him of smuggling cows. News reports alleged that the police took three hours to take Khan to a hospital 6 km away, where he was declared brought dead. The state police admitted that its personnel had made an “error in judgement”.

The court will hear the matter next on August 30.