Cow vigilante Monu Manesar was detained by the Haryana Police in Gurugram on Tuesday. He is wanted in connection with the murder of two men from Rajasthan and for inciting the violence in Haryana’s Nuh in July.
Two cousins Nasir, 25, and Junaid, 35, who were residents of a village in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district, were allegedly abducted by cow vigilantes on February 15. The next day, their bodies were found inside a car that had been set ablaze in Loharu in Haryana’s Bhiwani.
28-year-old Mohit Yadav aka Monu Manesar, a prominent face in Haryana for cow vigilantism, is one of the 21 accused in the FIR of the case.He heads the local cow protection unit of the Bajrang Dal in Nuh, the far-right youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
The families of the Junaid and Nasir had alleged that they were kidnapped, beaten and murdered by members of the Bajrang Dal – a claim rejected by the outfit.
However, Rajasthan Director General of Police Umesh Mishra last month said that police investigation did not find direct involvement of Monu Manesar in the killing of the two men in Rajasthan.
Monu Manesar was also widely accused of making inflammatory remarks before the recent communal violence in Nuh in Haryana but he has denied any wrongdoing. Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, had died in the clashes over an attempt to stop a Vishva Hindu Parishad procession and spread to Gurugram.
