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Cow vigilante and Bajrang Dal functionary Monu Manesar was on Tuesday picked up from Haryana’s Manesar and likely to be handed over to police in Rajasthan, where he is wanted for the killing of two Muslim cattle traders in February, people aware of the matter said.
The charred remains of the traders Junaid and Nasir, who were cousins, were found in a burnt SUV in Loharu in Bhiwani on February 16. The two residents of Ghatmika village in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district were allegedly abducted, beaten, and murdered.
People aware of the matter said Monu Manesar was at a market in Manesar’s Sector 1 when police in civvies nabbed him and took him away.
Manesar’s deputy police commissioner Manbir Singh said they had been informed that a team picked up Monu Manesar even though there was no official communication yet. “Nowhere has his arrest been shown yet.”
People aware of the matter said a special investigation team probing the July 31 communal violence in Nuh picked up Monu Manesar, who heads the cow vigilante wing of Bajrang Dal in Haryana. Two Hindu mahapanchayats (grand assemblies) backing Monu Manesar were held in Haryana amid calls for his arrest.
Monu Manesar allegedly posted inflammatory videos on social media before Hindu and Muslim groups clashed during the Bajrang Dal and Vishva Hindu Parishad’s Shobha Yatra in Nuh. The violence, which left six people dead, spread to places such as Gurugram as mobs set fire to and vandalised dozens of establishments.
Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar last month said Rajasthan Police were free to act after videos suggesting Manesar would be part of the annual religious procession in Nuh were blamed for triggering the violence even as he did not turn up.
Haryana home minister Anil Vij told HT last month that Monu Manesar “is a wanted criminal” on the run. He said a case was pending against Manesar in Haryana as well and they will catch him.
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