Image Courtesy: muslimmirror.com
Condemning the brutal killing of two young Muslim men between February 15-16 in Bhiwani of Rajasthan, the CPI-M has pointed out how the serious and relevant charge of murder is absent from the FIR, demanded that the Gehlot run Congress government purse the investigation seriously and a compensation of Rs 50 lakh per family is paid. The CPI-M has also demanded government employment for one family member of the deceased.
A delegation of the party that included Brinda Karat, member, Polit Bureau of CPI(M) and Amra Ram, Central Committee member and Sumitra Chopra, Dr. Sanjay Madhav, Raisa (Rajasthan state secretariat and state committee members) and advocate Shabbir Khan. They visited Ghatmika village in Rajasthan.
A detailed press release issued states that fears of the family that the investigation and prosecution in this case of brutal twin murders will be compromised, is justified. “The FIR filed is on the charge of kidnapping and the charge of murder is yet to be included. Those named in the FIR include the notorious Mohit Yadav known as Manu Manesar who operates with impunity in the region with the approval of the BJP government in Haryana. The burnt car and bodies were found in village Barvas, Loharu in the Bhiwani district of Haryana. So the Haryana police, which has been complicit in providing patronage to the activities of the gau rakshaks, is to be involved with the investigation. Only one of the accused has been arrested.” Media investigations have revealed that Mohit Yadav (allias Monu Manesar) has close links with some BJP leaders.
Hence, the delegation has appealed to the Rajasthan Government to act firmly, more so since the initial crime of kidnapping took place in Rajasthan. “The criminals named must be arrested without delay. Compensation of fifty lakh rupees, as given by the government in the earlier communal murder of Kanhaiya Lal, should be given to the families of the victims along with employment assistance.” Kahhaiya Lal was beheaded brutally last year following former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s controversial comments on Prophet Mohammed.
A delegation of the CPI(M) went to Ghatmika village in the Mewati area of Rajasthan on February 17 and met the families of Junaid and Nasir, who had been kidnapped, brutally beaten and then burnt alive by criminals reportedly belonging to the Bajrang Dal Gau Rakshak gang operating on the border of Rajasthan and Haryana.
Family Account of the Murders: According to the family, states the CPI-M press release, on February 15, Junaid accompanied by his cousin Nasir left Ghatmika sometime in the evening to meet the family of the boy with whom he hoped to fix the marriage of his brother’s daughter. His brother suffers from a mental disability and it was Junaid who was looking after both families. Junaid, a father of six children, owned a shop which had to be closed during Covid after which he was working as an agricultural worker or doing manual work. The delegation met Shajida, Junaid’s widow and his sister-in-law and their children. Nasir, was a truck driver. Both he and his wife Harmina are orphans. They have no children and Nasir was supporting his siblings. Their killing has left their dependents desperate and devastated, in need of urgent assistance.
The CPI-M delegation inquired about the reported cases against Junaid on charges of “cow smuggling”. These cases had been filed during the earlier BJP regime along with cases against many others in surrounding villages. Since there was no evidence of any kind, Junaid was never arrested nor have any of the charges been proved even after all these years. In fact, they were false cases filed by a vindictive government to justify the spate of incidents of violence against cattle farmers and traders by the gau rakshak gangs.
The ‘manufactured narrative is that dairy farmers and cattle traders who belong to the Muslim community are actually not dairy farmers but cow slaughterers. The village Ghatmika with a predominantly Muslim population is situated in the Mewati region which has been the target of the so-called gau rakshaks. During the previous BJP regime in Rajasthan, in November 2017, a resident of this village, Umar Khan, a cattle trader was shot dead by the gau rakshaks. This was a few months after the brutal killing of dairy farmer Pehlu Khan. The family of Umar Khan is yet to get justice. The village apprehends that the same fate awaits the families of Junaid and Nasir. They said they did not want to bury the bodies till all the accused were arrested but were persuaded to do so by the Congress Minister Zahida Khan who assured them of justice. The delegation arrived in the village after the last rites had been performed and could not meet the Minister or officials.’
Background
Sabrangindia had reported on February 16 how two young Muslim men, Junaid and Nasir who were kidnapped allegedly by members of Bajrang Dal two days before were found burnt to death, their charred bodies were found in a burnt car. It has been alleged that Monu Manesar, a Bajrang Dal man with connections to the ruling Bharatiya Jnata Party (BJP), who also leads a 50 member team of cow-vigilantes or gau-rakshaks is involved in this crime. Kidnapped on false allegations of cow slaughter two slaughter, these men were found brutally killed. An FIR has been registered at Gopalgarh police station in Bharatpur, Rajasthan against Monu Maneshar, Lokesh, Rinku Saini, Srikant under sections 143 (member of unlawful assembly), 365 (Kidnapping or abducting with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine person), 367 (Kidnapping or abducting in order to subject person to grievous hurt, slavery, etc) and 368 (Wrongfully concealing or keeping in confinement, kidnapped or abducted person) of the IPC. It appears this FIR was filed before their bodies were discovered in the burnt car.
Early this month, Monu Manesar had also been accused of killing a 21-year-old man, Waris in Nuh, Gurugram. Waris’s family claimed he was killed by gau rakshak (cow vigilantes) led by Monu Manesar however, the police let him off claiming that Wairs met with an accident and died due to internal bleeding.Reporting on the background of Monu, The Wire wrote, “Often, Monu and his team live-stream the process of chasing a vehicle that is suspected of illegally carrying cattle. After the ‘smugglers’ are nabbed, Monu and his team post several images of the rescued cattle and the accused on their social media pages as ‘conquests’.”
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