Moradabad cow slaughter incident has a first—it has angered Hindus against gau rakshaks

Bajrang Dal calls themselves cow protectors. Now they themselves have started killing cows. Nothing can be a bigger sin than this, says a resident of Chetrampur village.

Family members of Mehmood at his house in Moradabad’s Chetrampur village. Mehmood was accused of cow slaughter by a fellow villager and had to spend three nights in custody before he was released and real perpetrators arrested. | Photo by Krishan Murari | ThePrint

Moradabad: When Mehmood went out of his house to get medicines on Friday, his phone kept ringing. His family members called him several times. Worried for his safety, they keep an eye on him all the time now, rarely letting him step out. Mehmood was recently arrested by Moradabad police in the cow slaughter case but released later.

Moradabad police on Wednesday arrested four people, including Bajrang Dal district president Monu Bishnoi, for falsely implicating Mehmood in an alleged cow slaughter case. The police has said cow slaughters — both reported last month — were a result of rivalry between two individuals and a conspiracy against the police.

Despite the accused being behind the bars, Mehmood’s life has not become easy. “Police and Bajrang Dal people came to my house at midnight. I was in jail for three days,” he said sitting on a cot spread in the courtyard of the house near Noori Masjid in Moradabad’s Chetrampur village.

The Moradabad incident reveals a larger theme of violence emanating from cow slaughters that have popped up across many states in north India, including Haryana and Rajasthan and seen the likes of cow vigilantes Monu Manesars being put behind the bars. The cycle of violence that has been perpetrated in the name of protecting Hindu sentiments now appears to be turning on its head. Moradabad case is a living proof of how cow protection campaigns are a breeding ecosystem governed by local strongmen who use it as a way to further their own politics and interest. Police, that has long played to the galleries when it came to cracking down on cow vigilantes, is finally at the receiving end, sensing threat at its doors. And there is anger among the Hindus of the area too.

Local people said that because the region is agriculture-based, people also keep cattle. In such a situation, false allegations of killing of animals, especially cows, will spoil the environment of the entire area. “The people of Bajrang Dal call themselves cow protectors and now they themselves have started killing cows. Nothing can be a bigger sin than this. Their reality has also come to light and cows politics has also been exposed. These people want to create discord in the society without any reason,” said Sanjeev Kumar, a resident of Chetrampur village.

Mehmood, 30, a resident of Chetrampur, 25 km from Moradabad district headquarters, takes care of his family working as a labourer. He lives with his wife, two sons and a daughter. His courtyard itself home to cows and buffaloes.

Still in shock because of the police action against him and the fact that one of the accused is still absconding, he told ThePrint. “I have no enmity with anyone. I was implicated in a conspiracy. My family is still in danger.”

The denial

Moradabad Police said that on 16 January some body parts of a cow was recovered from Kanwar Path — the road is used in Shravana month by Hindu pilgrims.

Of the four accused arrested by the Moradabad Police, three are associated with Bajrang Dal, including Monu Bishnoi alias Sumit and his associates Raman Chaudhary and Rajeev Chaudhary. Shahabuddin, a resident of Chetrampur, is the main accused who had enmity with Mehmood.

However, Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad said that these people have been implicated.

Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad which has mentioned cow protection as one of its main activities on its website. It was established during the Ram Mandir movement.

“It is ridiculous and unfortunate to accuse an organization whose resolution is cow protection of cow slaughter. We will not tolerate such things. The Hindu community should get justice and those who oppose hindus, action should be taken against those,” said Vinod Bansal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s national spokesperson.

The acquittal rate under cow slaughter law is very high. For instance, in Muslim dominated Nuh, the acquittal rate under Haryana’s cow slaughter law is around 94 per cent.

How it was all framed

Mehmood and Shahabuddin’s houses are barely minutes away from each other. Their relations hit a low after the former had got the later married to the daughter of one of his relatives three years ago.

“He (Shahabuddin) used to beat the girl against whom I opposed him. But he did not listen to me. He wanted to dominate. In such a situation, he hatched this whole conspiracy to take revenge,” Mehmood said.

According to the police, Shahabuddin tried to implicate Mehmood in a false case seeking help from Bajrang Dal workers. That’s how Monu Bishnoi advised Shahabuddin to put a false case of cow slaughter on Mehmood. Chetrampur resident Vimla Devi’s cow was stolen as a bait for the police.

According to Chhajlet police station, on the night of 28 January, Bajrang Dal workers called and informed them that cow slaughter was going to take place. Police said that even before they could reach the spot, Bajrang Dal workers were present. “The fog was very dense and this incident took place in the forest where the cow’s neck was lying,” said Satendra Sharma, SHO of Chhajlat police station.

Sharma said that the Bajrang Dal workers stopped police and directed them towards a pair of trousers that were lying there as evidence. The trousers had the purse and photo of the person who was being accused of killing the cow. “I immediately became suspicious of their knowledge,” he said.

Police extracted call details of Bajrang Dal workers, and in their conversations with Shahbuddin revealed the truth of the matter after which Shahabuddin was arrested from Chetrampur. “During interrogation, Shahabuddin confessed to everything and told that he was already having a fight with Mehmood due to which he made this whole plan,” said Sharma.

Pressurising police

Local police said Bajrang Dal workers often put pressure on them regarding incidents of animal cruelty and sometimes even protest outside the police station.

Moradabad MP ST Hasan said that Hindutva organisations have made cow breeding a business. “Bajrang Dal people work like a racket in Moradabad. If someone takes meat, they call it cow meat and extort money from it,” he said.

Both the government and the administration are sensitive in the matter of cows, so they have to take immediate action, said Hasan. “But they are completely working as a gang. And often, the accusation of cow slaughter is made by throwing the meat near a Muslim village. It has become a big business. They are just doing politics in the name of cow and the aim is to target Muslims.”

Police said that while Shahabuddin wanted to implicate Mehmood, Monu Bishnoi wanted to remove SHO Satendra Sharma.

According to Moradabad ACP Dehat, Sandeep Kumar Meena, Sharma had caught 32 animals a few days ago. But Monu Bishnoi and his associates were putting pressure on the police station in-charge to hand over the animals to them. There was tension between the two regarding this issue. “So he (Bishnoi) made this plan to trap me. But I cannot let any wrongdoing happen,” said Sharma.

Meanwhile, in a press conference held on Thursday, Vishwa Hindu Parishad alleged that the police is colluding with smugglers to trap Bajrang Dal workers. “This will not be tolerated at all,” said VHP’s state co-minister Jitendra Choudhary.

After the arrest of Monu Bishnoi, Bajrang Dal workers in Moradabad are an angry lot. The Hindu organisation’s Moradabad metropolitan cow protection chief Rajat Thakur said, “We work for Hindus. Our workers cannot slaughter cows. They are all innocent. Our organization is being defamed.”

According to police, Monu Bishnoi was arrested in January under section 307 and sent to jail a few days ago and he usually puts pressure on the police to get their illegal work done.

“The police have exposed the conspiracy on the basis of electronic surveillance, mobile location and other evidence. These are people with criminal tendencies and have been regularly putting pressure on the police,” said Hemraj Meena, SSP, Moradabad, on Thursday.

Moradabad police have registered two FIRs under IPC 120B, 211, 380, 457 and 411 and section 3,5,8 of cow slaughter Act. Police said that arrested four people have past criminal records. Five cases are already on Monu Bishnoi under various IPC sections while two cases are on Shahbuddin.

Killing a cow

Shahabuddin’s mother Muradan was baking bread on the stove on Friday and 70-year-old father Muzaffar Hussain was attending his small shop located in a corner of the house. One of his sons is still absconding and another son died last month on 6 January, which he blames on Mehmood.

Sitting on the cot with her hands covered in flour, Muradan said as tears rolled down her cheeks, “My entire family has been ruined. We had not even recovered from the shock of the death of one son and now all this has happened. The Bajrang Dal people have done all this, my son didn’t do anything.”

Shahabuddin, 20, was engaged in farming and gas welding work. He is the youngest among his five brothers. After the news broke out about his son’s alleged involvement, Hussain hasn’t been keeping well. Muradan runs to bring him a bowl of water and consoles him to remain calm but is unable to control her tears. “We don’t know how all this happened. We are weak people. My children are not like this. He must have confessed out of fear of the police,” she said.

Barely half a kilometre away from Shahabuddin’s house, Mehmood’s wife, pointing towards their three children, said that if the police had not discovered the truth in time, the entire family would have been ruined.

In the name of cow killing, Mahmood’s brother Mehboob says, Shahabuddin and Bajrang Dal wanted to achieve their own targets. “A person can get away with murder but not by killing a cow.”

(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)