The Rajasthan Police has filed a chargesheet against 21 people accused of being involved in the brutal abduction and lynching of two Muslim men in Haryana’s Bhiwani District on 16 February 2024. Amongst the accused is Monu Yadav alias Monu Manesar, who oversees the cow vigilante division on the right-wing Bajrang Dal in Haryana.
Image source: Hindustan Times
On February 16, the charred skeletons of two men were found in an SUV in the Bhiwani district of Haryana, The bodies belonged to Nasir(25) and Juaid(35) who were cousins residing in the village of Ghatmeeka. Their family who had reported them as missing claimed that the two had been abducted by cow vigilantes belonging to Bajrang Dal under the guise of ‘protecting cows’.
Their bodies were discovered in a Bolero the following morning in Loharu. One of the victims, Junaid, had five cases registered against him as per the police and had prior criminal charges laid against him for bovine smuggling.
Through DNA testing, a forensic report confirmed that the blood stains found in the Bolero and the remains were of the two brothers. According to the preliminary investigation, Junaid was murdered in Firojpur Jhirka while Nasir was asphyxiated near Bhiwani after which the SUV was set on fire on the night of 14-15 February.
The accused have been charged under sections 365(kidnapping), 367(grievous hurt after abduction), 147( rioting), 368( wrongful confinement), 201( causing disappearance of evidence), 120B (criminal conspiracy), and 302(murder) amongst others and their investigation is being conducted under Section 173(8) of the Code of Criminal Procedure according to Shyam Singh, the Superintendent of Police in Bharatpur.
In response to the FIR, Monu Manesar, one of the accused, has claimed that he is open to presenting himself to the Bharatpur Police whenever he is called upon and has promised his complete cooperation”.
Manesar has vehemently denied any participation in the murder claiming “I am nowhere involved in the case. ” Manesar is infamous for his frequenting courts over his actions relating to cow vigilantism. He had amassed a following on social media for sharing videos of the “cow protection group” hunting down supposed bovine smugglers.
Manesar has been backed by two maha panchayats of the region who claim that the accused is being targeted for his political beliefs and to paint the Party in the wrong light as the Rajasthan assembly elections will be carried out this year. The Mahapanchayat was heavily attended by members of the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad who had earlier claimed that the party “Won’t sit idle if cow protector arrested without evidence,”
After the initial investigation, the police named 9 suspects including Rinku Saini, Anil and Srikant Pandit from Nuh, Kalu Jaat from Kaithal, Kishore from Karnal, Monu and Gogi from Bhiwani, Vikas and Sashikant Sharma from Jind but Manesar was not considered a suspect, a fact his faction uses to support that claim that he is being framed.
The Police nabbed accused Monu Rana and Gogi on 14th April while Rinku Saini had been brought under custody on 17th February. The alleged perpetrators named in the report are Mohit alias Monu Manesar, Vishal Jebli, Pravesh and Ravindra Badal; Sanjay Parmar, Devi Lal, Yogendra Acharya and Azad Acharya among others.
