In a startling revelation, Rajasthan police have found that self-styled cow vigilantes, led by Monu Manesar, had listed out personal information of Nasir and Junaid, a week before they were brutally murdered for alleged cow smuggling.
According to a report by The Indian Express, the right-wing outfit had circulated vehicle registration and phone numbers of Nasir Hussain and Junaid Khan among the vigilantes about a week they were killed. The charred bodies of Junaid and Nasir, who were cousins, were found in a car in Haryana’s Bhiwani district on February 16, 2023.
Police made this revelation days after the prime accused of the case, Mohit Yadav, alias Monu Manesar, was arrested. He was nabbed by Haryana police on Tuesday, September 12, for his recent “objectionable and inflammatory” posts on social media post ahead of Nuh violence.
Manesar was handed over to Rajasthan police after obtaining a transit remand from a court in Nuh.
A Rajasthan police official, speaking on conditions of anonymity, told The Indian Express that during Monu Manesar’s two-day interrogation, it was found that he used to be in touch with the another accused Rinku Saini. The duo had spoken on the phone before and after the abduction of Nasir and Junaid.
The officer said that self-styled cow vigilantes shared information about the victims as they were believed to be involved in cow smuggling. Following this modus operandi, the cow vigilantes received vehicle registration and phone numbers of the victims.
The accused had formed two groups and set up a barrier to intercept the victims at Peeruka, on the Rajasthan-Haryana border, a chargesheet filed in May 2023 states. This action suggests that the accused were aware of the victims’ route in advance.
“Their plan was not to commit this act (of killing Nasir and Junaid) but to pick them up. They just wanted to first catch them with the cows. But when they didn’t get the cows, they beat them with the intention of finding out about smuggled cows,” an officer was quoted by The Indian Express.
According to the police, four accused Monu Rana, Rinku Saini, Gogi and Monu Manesar are currently in custody and 26 others are suspected to be involved.
The interrogation of two suspects in April 2023 revealed that Nasir was strangled to death by vigilantes in Bhiwani after Junaid died first in Ferozepur Jhirka. The bodies and vehicle were then set afire to destroy evidence.
Despite eight months passing since Junaid and Nasir were murdered, prime accused Monu Manesar was still roaming free. Haryana police had declared that he was ‘absconding’. The police initially failed to arrest him because of his connection with BJP bigwigs in Haryana and top police officials who felicitated him for ‘serving cows’.
Manesar came into the spotlight again on July 31, when the fatal communal clashes erupted in Nuh. Nuh is a Muslim-majority district nearly 100 km from New Delhi. The clashes preceded far-right Hindu groups’ religious procession through the district.
Manesar, a leader of the Bajrang Dal vigilante group and a member of the youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), had announced in a Facebook live video that he would attend the Nuh rally. He had urged other Hindus to do the same.
Residents of Nuh claimed that the video infuriated them because Manesar was the main accused in Nasir and Junaid murder case.
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