Ghaziabad: Poonam and Pinky Chaudhary are eagerly awaiting the arrival of their grandchild. But their Ghaziabad home is not filled with toys and stuffed animals. Instead, there is only Anna-Rocking—an Indian-made ‘Hindu doll’ in a saffron kurta, white dhoti, and blonde hair, with a tilak on his forehead. While Hindu Raksha Dal founder Pinky is in jail for attacking Muslim slum dwellers whom he claimed were Bangladeshis on 9 August, Poonam is holding the fort at home.
But for the couple, Pinky’s arrest—he has 14 cases against him in Uttar Pradesh for offences like rioting and promoting enmity—is a badge of honour.
“He says that just as women wear jewellery to enhance their beauty, he has these cases against him to show that he has worked for the Hindus,” said Poonam, who is visibly proud of her husband. To her, he is a true ‘patriot’ protecting Hindus.
Pinky’s love for his religion has often taken violent turns, and this time it was captured on camera. Armed with sticks, he was seen attacking Muslim slum dwellers and vandalising their homes, all the while shouting that they were Bangladeshi. It was his revenge for the attacks against Hindus in Bangladesh. The very next day on 10 August, the Uttar Pradesh police arrested Pinky, also known as Bhupendra Tomar, along with two others, while clarifying that the victims were not Bangladeshis.
The swift action by the police in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh against the Hindu radical surprised many observers, including the Hindu Raksha Dal members themselves. After all, Pinky’s association with the “Hindu cause” is not new. A former Bajrang Dal member, his family and colleagues say that he was part of the 1992 Ayodhya violence, Hindu panchayat during Muzaffarnagar riots, and even sat in protest with Yogi Adityanath before he became Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. It is also ironic that he was shouting “Bangladeshi, Bangladeshi” in a town not too far from where the former Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has been given refuge by India.
But the arrest only emboldens him, said his wife. She pointed to the lone doll on the shelf.
“I got it for our eldest daughter, who is pregnant. We don’t want the child to have any Western influence, so we chose a Hindu doll that was made in India,” she said.
Like the doll, their bedroom in the ground floor flat is full of symbols of their ‘commitment’ to their cause—from the portrait of VD Savarkar on top of a wooden cupboard and a 3D photo of the Ayodhya Ram mandir next to it. There is also a huge LED TV screen hooked up to CCTVs from where they can monitor the stretch of road outside. The most prominent display is the saffron flag of the Hindu Raksha Dal outside.
Pinky has been accused of several acts of violence, from vandalising the Aam Aadmi Party’s Kaushambi office to facilitating violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and has been in and out of Tihar jail.
“My husband and I are committed to the nation first, and then to our family. If tomorrow our nation no longer exists, what is the point of having a family?” said Poonam.
‘Turning against’ Pinky
Days before the attack, Pinky was agitated by a WhatsApp forward he received—a clip of a Hindu woman who was allegedly being harassed by a group of Muslim men in Bangladesh.
“He showed me that video and said that he wanted to do something to protect the Hindus in Bangladesh. He was ready to visit Bangladesh if given a chance,” said Poonam.
News of Muslims attacking Hindus in Bangladesh in the political turmoil that followed the toppling of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government played heavily on his mind. It’s what he was thinking of when he got a call on 8 August from an associate informing him about the Bangladeshi Muslim slum dwellers in Ghaziabad. The next evening, Pinky along with his aides reached the spot, raised slogans, asked the families to show them ID cards, and then attacked them.
A local police officer who witnessed the incident said that he tried to convince Pinky that the people living in the slum were not Bangladeshis. But the Hindu Raksha Dal chief refused to listen to reason.
“It was around 6:30 pm near Guldhar railway station when I heard a noise coming from the shanties. I went to investigate and saw Hindu Raksha Dal chief Pinky Chaudhary with around 15-20 others accusing Muslims living in those shanties of being Bangladeshis while attacking them and vandalising two to three shanties. I intervened and tried to make him understand that these people are not Bangladeshis, but he didn’t listen and continued attacking them aggressively,” said the police sub-inspector in his statement in the FIR.
The next day, the Uttar Pradesh police booked Pinky and 19 others under IPC Sections 117(4) and 191(2) (voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt to extort property, or to constrain to an illegal act), 354 (act caused by inducing person to believe that he will be rendered an object of divine displeasure), 191(2) (rioting), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings), and 324(5) (committing mischief and thereby causing loss or damage to the amount of one lakh rupees or upwards). As many as three men have been arrested including Pinky, who is in judicial custody for 14 days.
He says that just as women wear jewellery to enhance their beauty, he has these cases against him to show that he has worked for the Hindus
– Poonam Chaudhary, Pinky’s wife
“There are several Muslim colonies and shanties. Why didn’t my husband attack them? Because they were not Bangladeshis. My husband asked them for ID cards, they didn’t have any. And he also saw a Bangladeshi flag at one of the jhuggis (shanty),” claimed Poonam, justifying her husband’s act of violence.
Poonam is convinced her husband did the right thing.
“If we don’t give these Bangladeshis a taste of their own medicine, they will kill all Hindus,” said Poonam.
But the police investigation so far has confirmed what everyone already knew–there were no Bangladeshis in the slum.
“Even if there were, he can’t take the law into his own hands. He has not only attacked the dwellers but also set fire to one jhopdi (shanty),” said ACP Ghaziabad Abhishek Shrivastav.
The Ghaziabad police is contemplating taking action against Pinky Chaudhary under the National Security Act (NSA).
The couple’s eldest son, a 24-year-old Hindu Raksha Dal member who is being ‘trained’ by his father to pick up the baton, can’t understand why the police “turned against” Pinky.
“He feels betrayed by his Hindu brothers,” said the son when he returned home from visiting his father who is at Dhanja Jail.
The young man’s views have been shaped and nurtured by his father. He has tagged along to every Hindu Raksha Dal (HRD) meeting with Pinky.
“My father is doing everything for Hindus and he wants Hindus to wake up else we all will be doomed,” he said.
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Bigger goals
Every time Pinky succeeds in a ‘mission’, there is a celebration at home and at the HRD office some 300 metres away. A few months ago, when Pinky allegedly saved a dozen cows from slaughter, he returned home to a hero’s welcome. At least 12 people—neighbours and members of his organisation—gathered to congratulate him.
They all read the Hanuman Chalisa together, and then headed to the HRD office to feast on a spread of pakoras, paneer, dal.
“I felt so proud. Everyone was congratulating me on my husband’s success,” said Poonam.
Born in Bhagpat’s Bamnauli village, Pinky relocated to Ghaziabad as a child when his father started working with former UP CM Chaudhary Charan Singh. But politics didn’t entice Pinky. He had “bigger goals of saving his religion from Islamic influence”.
“As a young boy, he saw several Muslim men luring Hindu girls on the pretext of marriage but with one intention to convert them. It made him angry and that’s when he knew that he had to do something against this,” said his friend Mahesh Kumar Ahuja who claims to have known him since childhood.
Poonam recalled how she always wanted to marry a fighter, and she got one in her husband Pinky. Bhupender was nicknamed Pinky because of his red cheeks as a child, and eventually, he became Pinky Chaudhary. Even his X handle is “Pinky Bhaiya”.
“Several years ago, he got his name changed on all the documents,” said Poonam.
When he’s not butting heads with minority communities or cops, Pinky runs a property business with his brothers and son.
My father is doing everything for Hindus and he wants Hindus to wake up else we all will be doomed
– Pinky’s son
Since Pinky’s arrest, Poonam and their daughter have not stepped out of the house. They fear attacks from Muslims and keep an eye on the CCTV footage from their living room. Poonam alleged that her husband used to get threats from Muslims.
“We are afraid to step outside. We don’t have any protection and my husband is in jail for protecting Hindus,” said Poonam.
Last year, she helped open the women’s wing of Hindu Raksha Dal, which she now heads with her two daughters.
Pinky’s younger daughter, a Delhi University student, says her father would take her and her elder sister to the society park to teach them self-defence.
“I will make women learn self-defence. I want to tell women to stop being shy and coy. Work with the men to save Hindus,” said Poonam.
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Protecting the Hindu identity
A board with a photo of Pinky hangs outside the office of Hindu Raksha Dal in Ghaziabad’s Vijay Nagar. Several workers have gathered here to discuss “Pinky bhaiya’s arrest”.
“In the next few days, we will be holding a huge dharna outside the DM office in Ghaziabad,” said Sanket Katara, secretary and spokesperson of the Hindu Raksha Dal.
Pinky founded the HRD in 2013 after he got disillusioned with Bajrang Dal—he thought it was not “aggressively working for the Hindu cause.” Today, HRD has over 2 lakh registered members, claimed Katara.
The two men met in 2014 when he along with others attacked AAP’s office after advocate Prashant Bhushan—who was a member of the party at the time—said there should be a referendum over the deployment of the Army in Kashmir.
The Ghaziabad police arrested Pinky and the other attackers, including Katara.
While Katara was released on bail within ten days, Pinky was in prison for four months.
“I saw that Pinky bhaiya took everything on himself and said that all his men should be set free. To me, it felt that he is such a selfless man,” said Katara, who joined HRD soon after.
Since then, Katara has been at the forefront of every protest with Pinky. Boasting about the Jawaharlal Nehru University violence in 2020, Katara said that it was Pinky who sent his men to punish the anti-Hindu elements on the campus. Armed with rods and sticks, a group of masked men and women entered the JNU campus and attacked students, and teachers, while vandalising hostels. A day later, Pinky Chaudhary took the responsibility for the attack claiming the university to be “the hotbed of anti-national activities.”
In 2023, Katara was in the news again for attacking a traffic head constable who had fined a mini truck driver for a ‘Jai Mata Di’ poster on his vehicle.
“Pinky bhaiya has only one mission: to protect his religion. He will go to any length for that,” said Katara, as young teenage boys at the HRD office nod their heads aggressively in agreement.
Within the organisation, there is growing anger toward the BJP, the party they had pinned their hopes on. During the Samajwadi Party and Congress rule, they knew that Muslims would be protected but now, even the BJP is acting on the same lines, claimed Ahuja.
Pinky bhaiya has only one mission: to protect his religion. He will go to any length for that
-Sanket Katara, HRD secretary
“BJP wants to show itself as a secular party but they also want to show that during their rule not even a single Hindu-Muslim riot took place. So, they are arresting us and not them [Muslims],” said Ahuja.
Members of HRD say that Pinky’s arrest is a case of “political vendetta”. He was preparing to contest the by-polls from Ghaziabad, to be likely held in October, and was asking for ‘only’ Hindu votes.
Members are gearing up for a fight—imaginary and otherwise–to protect and perpetuate their idea of the Hindu Indian identity.
These days, Poonam spends her time thinking about Bhagat Singh, a freedom fighter and a revolutionary.
“I always think that had Bhagat Singh been alive, he would have been like Pinky Chaudhary,” she said, opening a book of Shiv Puran.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)