In addition to the one man who has already been arrested, the Rajasthan Police have released the names of eight cow vigilantes they believe killed two Muslim men from Bharatpur who were found burned to death in a car in Haryana’s Bhiwani on February 16.
The name of Mohit Yadav, who is known locally as Monu Manesar and is one of the most well-known cow vigilantes in Haryana, is not on the list. He has said that he was not involved, and two “Hindu Mahapanchayats” have been held in the past two days to hear him out.
Investigators from the Rajasthan Police say that on February 15, the nine suspects attacked, kidnapped, and beat Junaid, who was 35, and Nasir, who was 27, and then took them to at least two police stations in Firozpur Jhirka, where they were turned away. The Haryana Police said that they were looking into what was said.
According to the story that Rajasthan Police made up, nine men stopped Junaid and Nasir on February 15 between 4.30 and 5 a.m. They were likely from two different cow vigilante groups, one from Karnal and the other from Bhiwani. Rinku Saini was taken into custody in Firozpur Jhirka. Anil and Srikant Pandit are from Nuh, Kalu Jaat is from Kaithal, Kishore is from Karnal, Monu and Gogi are from Bhiwani, and Vikas and Sashikant Sharma are from Jind.
Officers said that the two victims were in a Mahindra Bolero when the accused, who was in a Mahindra Scorpio, pulled them over near the Piruka forests because he thought they were trying to steal cows. So far, investigations have shown that there were no cows in the Bolero. The two victims were hurt, and at 6:15 a.m., the nine men took them to the Firozpur Jhirka police station because they were hurt. “However, the police station saw how sick the two men were and sent them away. Then, at 8 a.m., they went to the CIA (crime investigation unit) police post in Firozpur Jhirka, but they were turned away there, too, said a Rajasthan Police officer who asked not to be named.
Ismail, Junaid’s cousin, said on Tuesday that the accused tried to file a cow-smuggling case against the two victims, but they were turned away because of how badly they were hurt. “They would have lived if the police had taken them in and taken them to the hospital. But they asked the vigilantes to take the two men away, so they died and were set on fire to avoid being caught,” Ismail said.
But Varun Singla, who is in charge of the police in Nuh, which is where Firozpur Jhirka is, said that they were looking into these claims right now. “We will talk to the police in Rajasthan about when and where Junaid and Nasir were taken and what time it was. “We don’t know all the facts yet,” he said.
Dinesh MN, the additional director general of police for Rajasthan, said that the accused took the two victims to Bhiwani before getting to Jind. This is based on what Saini told the police and on technical evidence that the police have put together.
According to a second officer, this happened sometime in the evening of February 15. It’s not clear when exactly the accused set fire to the Bolero with the two men inside, but villagers found the burned car and the men’s bodies early on February 16.
Inspector General of Police for the Bharatpur area, Gaurav Srivastav, said, “We looked at CCTV footage, call records, and other evidence and found that these nine people were clearly involved.” In Haryana, three teams of state police are looking for them.”
HT said that the Rajasthan Police had found a Mahindra Scorpio on Tuesday, and Srivastava said that initial investigations showed that the vehicle had blood on it. “A team was sent to Bhiwani, and the SUV was found at the Somnath gau-shala. There are stains of blood that could be from the people who died. An FSL team is now looking at it,” Srivastava said.
Officials from the Rajasthan Police said that all nine of the men were part of “gau raksha” groups in Haryana. A senior officer said, “We haven’t named Monu Manesar as one of the nine, but he is still being treated as a suspect.” The FIR was filed in Bharatpur, Rajasthan, on February 15. It named Manesar and four other men: Anil, Srikant Pandit, Rinku Saini, and Lokesh Singla.
At least one of the eight men who were found on Wednesday, Narendra Rana, who also goes by the name “Monu,” has been in trouble with the law before. Bhiwani SP Ajit Singh Shekhawat said, “Narendra Rana, who lives in Paluwas village, was charged with rioting, wrongful restraint, and criminal conspiracy in two cases in December 2013 and October 2014. We are looking into his background, but we don’t know much about Anil, who is also from Bhiwani.
Rana has been involved with cow vigilante groups for the past seven years, according to a senior Haryana police officer, and a manhunt has been started to catch him.
A forensic lab will test the samples taken from the relatives of the victims, the samples of bone taken from the victims, and the samples of blood found in the SUV.
