New Delhi: Members of Bajrang Dal, youth wing of the Vishva Hindu Parishad, Friday staged a protest in Gurugram, Haryana, after claiming to have received death threats from cattle smugglers. This comes days after the death of 22-year-old Waris who succumbed to his injuries after allegedly being beaten up by members of the Bajrang Dal in the name of “cow vigilantism”.
On 28 January, Waris, a mechanic and resident of Hussainpur in Haryana’s Mewat district, was on his way back from Rajasthan along with two others in a car when, the police said, it crashed into a tempo near Kholi Kalan in Mewat. Waris was taken to a hospital where he died. An FIR has been registered by the police under the IPC sections related to rash driving and death due to negligence.
However, after a video of Waris and his companions being questioned about their name and village surfaced on social media, the family has alleged that he died of his injuries after being beaten up by cow vigilantes.
In a video interview to Article 14, a website dedicated to law-related research and reportage, Waris’ cousin said: “We had heard that there’s a Bajrang Dal group here that has been active for a long time. They indulge in acts of violence and carry out lynchings in the name of protecting cattle. Waris was not a cattle smuggler, though. He was simply travelling back from Rajasthan where he had gone for work.”
The Bajrang Dal has denied the accusation. In a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, the group wrote: “Recently, in Tauru, a car in which three accused cattle smugglers were travelling collided with a tempo, and an accused died in the accident. Some people in Mewat are using the incident to conspire against gau rakshaks and are giving them death threats…. We want to inform that if anyone… causes harm to any of our members, its aftermath will be felt.”
The police have filed two FIRs based on the complaints of Bajrang Dal leader Monu Manesar that he had received two calls — a voice call Monday and a video call Tuesday — where he was threatened with murder.
Manesar, a prominent member of cow vigilante groups in Haryana, has claimed that they rescued a cow from the car Waris and his companions were travelling in and took the injured to a hospital. “I went live on Facebook and asked the name of one of the injured, but we did not hurt any of them,” Manesar said reportedly.
This is only the latest in a string of deaths allegedly related to cow vigilantism. According to a report released by Human Rights Watch, a non-profit human rights organisation, in 2019, “Between May 2015 and December 2018, at least 44 people — 36 of them Muslims — were killed across 12 Indian states” by cow protection groups.”
Also read: ‘Gau Rakshaks’ thrash Muslim man in Mathura over false suspicion that he was carrying beef