Bharatpur (Rajasthan): “Jab tak todenge nahi, tab tak chodenge nahi (Won’t leave until we break you)”. This is one of Mohit Yadav’s, alias Monu Manesar, favourite taglines on social media. Monu, a gau rakshak (cow vigilante), was booked earlier this week after the charred bodies of two men — allegedly abducted, beaten and burnt to death on suspicion of smuggling cows — were found in Bhiwani, Haryana.
A face of the gau rakshaks across the districts of Panipat, Sonipat, Gurugram, Rewari, Nuh, Palwal, Jhajjar and Manesar, Monu was inducted into the Bajrang Dal as its Manesar district coordinator by Dharmendra Yadav, alias Dharmendra Manesar, and Manjeet Babra in 2012. Dharmendra is the president of the Gurgaon Gau Rakshak Dal.
Twenty-eight-year old Monu, who has a degree from a local polytechnic college, is also a member of the Manesar district administration’s civil defence team, and of the district cow protection taskforce that works in close coordination with the Haryana Police.
His social media accounts — Facebook (over 80,000 followers), Instagram and Youtube (over 2 lakh subscribers) — are flooded with videos of his team chasing suspected cow smugglers, news of ‘cow smugglers’ being arrested, and photos of him and members of his team after ‘raids’ against alleged cattle smugglers.
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Previous incidents
Earlier this week, Monu was booked on a complaint by relatives of two men from Ghatmeeka village of Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district after the charred bodies of Junaid and Nasir, allegedly abducted Tuesday night, were found in Bhiwani.
However, in a video posted on his Twitter handle, Monu claimed that this incident had nothing to do with his task force and even demanded that the accused be punished.
Earlier this month, his name figured in another police complaint filed in Haryana’s Nuh over the death of a 22-year-old Muslim man, Waris Khan. While the police claimed that Khan died in an accident, videos on social media purportedly showed the injured men being questioned by gau rakshaks about their names and villages of origin. Khan’s family alleged that he had succumbed to his injuries after being beaten up by cow vigilantes.
Monu had also claimed that his team had rescued a cow from Khan’s car but did not hurt any of the car’s occupants. Two FIRs were registered over alleged threats to Monu from cow smugglers.
Monu’s name also figured in another incident on 6 February, when 20-year-old Mohin Khan suffered a bullet injury following a scuffle between neighbours and gau rakshaks in Pataudi, Gurugram.
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Rise of cow vigilantism
Alleged incidents of cow vigilantism have over the years gained prominence in north India. According to a 2019 report released by Human Rights Watch, a non-profit human rights organisation, “between May 2015 and December 2018, at least 44 people — 36 of them Muslims — were killed across 12 Indian states”, allegedly by cow protection groups.
In 2016, Dharmendra Yadav’s Gau Rakshak Dal reportedly forced two men to eat cow dung to “teach them a lesson and purify them”.
In May last year, videos of cow vigilantes purportedly forcing a man into an SUV at gunpoint in the Ferozepur Jhirka area of Nuh had gone viral.
In April last year, a Muslim man was allegedly kidnapped and beaten up by cow vigilantes in Haryana’s Nuh district. He was later booked under the Haryana Gauvansh Sanrakshan and Gausamvardhan Act, 2015, and arrested.
Monu and his associates often livestream videos showing their ‘chases’ and how they ‘save’ the cows from ‘smugglers’ in the dark of the night, promoting the videos with appeals like the following: “Like and share the page as much as possible. Live encounter how cow smugglers get mobbed by cow protectors who risk their lives to catch cow smugglers (sic).”
In an interview with ABP Uncut, Monu had said the following he enjoys on social media and the praise he garners are thanks to his network and informants — who purportedly include ATM security guards, watchmen, WhatsApp groups, and the Haryana Police.
Monu also claimed in the interview that he was shot inside a Gurugram police station by cow smugglers in 2019 and was admitted in a hospital for 10 days. But, he added, his life is dedicated to gau mata (cow) and Sanatan Dharma.
Asked whether his team gets any government assistance, Monu denied it and said, “Society helps us… a few businessmen are also associated with us… they all help us from vehicle maintenance to fuel. For personal expenses, we have businesses — transport, letting houses on rent.”
In 2022, a panchayat in Manesar — organised among all “members of the Hindu community” under the banner of the ‘Samast Hindu Samaj’ — called for the economic boycott of Muslim traders. Monu and other leaders of Right-wing outfits were reportedly present at this meeting.
The activities of Monu and his associates aren’t limited only to ‘saving’ cows. At a 2021 ‘Hindu mahapanchayat’ organised in Pataudi, Monu purportedly invited people to submit submit lists of those indulging in ‘love jihad’ to his team, who would beat such people up.
In pictures on one of his Facebook pages, Bajrang Dal Manesar — now locked — he can be seen with senior police officers and bureaucrats from Haryana, religious leaders and politicians.
In June 2020, tweeting a photo of himself with Union minister Anurag Thakur, Monu had written, “Desh ke gaddaro ko goli maroon salon ko (Shoot the traitors to the country).”
(Edited by Anumeha Saxena)
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