Gurugram At a time when Uttar Pradesh is moving to withdraw charges against Dadri lynching accused, the long arm of the law seems to be catching up with cow vigilantes in Haryana, another Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled state.
Though there have been infamous cases, such as the killings of Nasir Hussain and Junaid Khan (2023), whose charred bodies were found inside a vehicle in Bhiwani, or the car chase and murder of Aryan Mishra (2024), Haryana has seen some affirmative steps—be it charge sheets, trial and even maximum punishment.
For instance, a special court handed death sentence to four convicts in the 2016 Dingerheri murder and gang-rape case. The convicts were held guilty for the murder of a Muslim couple and the gang-rape of their two nieces, one of whom was a minor.
In 2015, the BJP government banned cow slaughter and sale of beef, and imposed severe penalties for violations. To be sure, Haryana still reports cases involving ‘gau rakshaks’ (cow vigilantes), as seen in the Palwal case in March wherein a truck driver and his assistant faced their ire despite having documents to transport milch cows.
The attackers dumped Balkishan and Sandeep into a canal, presuming them to be dead. Balkishan, the driver, somehow swam to safety. Five have been arrested, so far.
After the BJP came to power in 2014, Haryana reported its first such case in March 2016, when cow vigilantes lynched Mustain Abbas, a 27-year-old Muslim from Uttar Pradesh, in Kurukshetra district on the suspicion of cow smuggling.
Criticising the police for allowing vigilantes to “unleash terror” on the innocent, the Punjab and Haryana High Court in May 2016 ordered the case be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Abbas’s body was exhumed in December 2016 for post-mortem at PGIMER, Chandigarh. The case is pending before the special CBI court in Panchkula.
Months later, in August 2016, the murders and gang-rapes in Nuh’s Digerheri village shook the state. One of the survivors told the police that the four attackers accused them of eating beef.
Four youths were arrested but the charge sheet was filed against a different set of accused persons. The Haryana police’s handling of the case, and their dismissal of the victim’s claim that the attackers mentioned “beef,” drew heavy criticism from various quarters.
Amid public outcry, and allegations of police failure, the CBI took over the probe in late 2016. It filed two separate charge sheets on 24 January, 2018 and 29 January, 2019.
In April 2024, a CBI court convicted four men—all members of a notorious gang—under sections of the erstwhile Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The next month, it handed the death sentence to the convicts and acquitted six others due to lack of sufficient evidence.
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Cow vigilante networks
Seven years after the Digerheri horror, cow vigilantes abducted, brutally assaulted Nasir and Junaid before killing the two men from Rajasthan’s Bharatpur, in February 2023. The case exposed the organised nature of cow vigilante operations, with networks that extended across district boundaries and appeared to operate with alarming impunity.
While 20-plus people were booked in the case, Bajrang Dal member and self-styled cow vigilante Mohit Yadav alias Monu Manesar was arrayed as the main accused. The arrest, though, came after much delay, resulting in the Rajasthan Police, then under the Congress rule, accusing its Haryana counterpart of shielding Manesar.
The cow vigilante was arrested in September, 2023 but in another case—for a provocative social media post ahead of the Vishva Hindu Parishad’s Jal Abhishek Yatra at Nuh. That message was said to be the trigger for the large-scale Nuh violence in August that year.
The Rajasthan police then took him in custody for the probe into Nasir-Junaid killings. By that time, it had already lodged a charge sheet naming Manesar and 20 others for abduction, assault, and murder as well as providing financial help and shelter to the absconding suspects.
In January, the Rajasthan High Court rejected the bail applications of Manesar and other key accused. One of the accused and self-proclaimed vigilante, Lokesh Singla, allegedly died by suicide in July. His pre-recorded video accused Bajrang Dal members of harassment.
And then came the shocker on 23 August, 2024, when Aryan Mishra was chased for 30 km in his car before being shot dead in Faridabad district. Five cow vigilantes, who mistook the 19-year-old for a Muslim cattle smuggler, were arrested. The police, through the Crime Investigation Branch, Sector-30, Faridabad, filed a comprehensive charge sheet against the accused in a local court on 26 November. The charge sheet named the five cow vigilantes and a fifth person who allegedly supplied illegal weapons. Nearly 40 witnesses have been named, including Aryan’s father and the co-passengers who were in the car with Aryan.
Four days after Aryan’s murder, a mob lynched rag picker Sabir Malik in Charkhi Dadri district on suspicion of consuming beef. The 26-year-old from West Bengal and his companion Asiruddin from Assam were set upon by vigilantes. Asiruddin survived the attack to tell the tale.
Ten people, including two juveniles, were arrested in connection with Sabir’s killing. A forensic report confirmed what many had suspected: there was no beef involved at all.
Deputy Superintendent of Police, Badhra (Charkhi Dadri), Subhash Chander told ThePrint that a charge sheet was lodged last year and the trial was in progress. He said a hunt was on to trace two-three absconding accused.
As for the Palwal case, the five ‘gau rakshaks’ were booked for murder and mob lynching, criminal conspiracy, abduction with the intent to murder among others under relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Later, a charge sheet was filed against them.
(Edited by Tony Rai)