The Haryana Police on Tuesday said that they have arrested cow vigilante Monu Manesar, who has been accused in the murder of two Muslim men from Rajasthan in February, PTI reported.
A purported video of him being taken into custody was widely shared on social media.
Manesar, the head of Hindutva group Bajrang Dal’s cow vigilante wing in Haryana, was produced before a court in Nuh amid heavy security arrangements, reported NDTV. The court remanded him to 14-day police custody and also handed him to the Rajasthan Police, according to the news channel.
On February 16, the charred bodies of two men named Nasir and Junaid were found in a car in Haryana’s Bhiwani after they were abducted by cow vigilantes from Rajasthan’s Bharatpur. Ismail, the brother of Junaid, had alleged that the victims were taken to a police station after they were assaulted by the cow vigilantes but the police in Haryana’s Nuh district refused to take them into custody.
In May, the Rajasthan Police filed a chargesheet against three persons, and kept the investigation against Manesar and 27 others pending.
Manesar was also seen making provocative speech in videos that went viral on social media in the days leading to violence in Haryana’s Nuh district last month. Six persons, including two home guards, the imam of a mosque and a Bajrang Dal member had died in the violence after communal tensions sparked off during a procession organised by the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
On August 2, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had said that the Rajasthan government was free to act against Manesar and that his administration would provide any necessary help.
Also read: Who is Monu Manesar, the Bajrang Dal member alleged to be linked to the Haryana rioting?
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