Wanted for 'inciting' Nuh riots, cow vigilante Monu Manesar held

Sumedha Sharma

Gurugram, September 12

Cow vigilante Monu Manesar, who was booked by the Rajasthan Police for the murder of two youths from Bharatpur in February and is also accused of inciting communal hatred in home state Haryana before the recent riots, was arrested on Tuesday, said officials.

Accused in Nasir-Junaid twin murder case too

Feb 6, 2023: Clash in Pataudi after an elopement; Manesar accused of attempt to murder after firing

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Feb 15: Bharatpur’s Junaid & Nasir go missing; complaint against him

Feb 16: Junaid & Nasir’s charred bodies found in Bhiwani’s Loharu

Feb 17: Manesar absconds with 20 others; Mahapanchayat blocks Rajasthan cops from raiding house

Feb 20: Rajasthan Police exclude Manesar’s name from the list of accused present at crime spot

April 13: Gets active on social media, claims he’s on pilgrimage

May 21: Named as accused in the Nasir-Junaid murder chargesheet

July 30: Releases video announcing he will join ‘Jalabhishek Yatra’

July 31: Skips ‘Jalabhishek Yatra’, though clashes erupt in Nuh

Aug 14: Rajasthan DGP says Manesar not directly involved in Nasir-Junaid murder, but background role being probed

Aug 28: Manesar’s social media post leads to communal flare-up

Sept 12: Nabbed by Nuh police

Manesar was nabbed by the Nuh police from his village and produced in a court, which sent him to judicial custody. Hours later, he was handed over to the Rajasthan Police, which had sought his transit remand in the Nasir-Junaid murder case. He has been taken to Bharatpur for questioning. Suspecting them to be cow thieves, Nasir and Junaid of Ghatmeeka in Rajasthan’s Bharatpur were allegedly kidnapped by a vigilante group from Rajasthan and their charred bodies were later found in Haryana’s Bhiwani. Though the chargesheet doesn’t mention Manesar’s presence at the crime spot, he has been accused of orchestrating the killings. According to the Nuh police, Manesar was wanted for a social media message posted on August 28, the intention of which appeared to be to incite communal sentiments ahead of the second ‘Jalabhishek Yatra’ on August 31. He had also courted controversy over another video in the run-up to the first ‘Jalabhishek Yatra’ in Nuh on July 31 when communal clashes broke out and six persons were killed.

“The situation was already tense and we were striving to maintain peace. It was then that a Facebook post went viral, which stated: ‘We will not care about the outcome and strike… we will ensure this is the last strike’. The post was from an account created by the name of Mohit Manesar. It was later traced to Monu,” said Nuh ASP Usha Kundu.

The cyber cell registered an FIR and with the CIA’s help, a trap was laid to trace Monu.