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Cow vigilante Monu Manesar sent to four-day police custody
The police are looking to recover weapons and cartridges and question Yadav about his connections with gangsters.
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Gurugram: A Pataudi court on Saturday granted the Gurugram police four-day remand of cow vigilante and Bajrang Dal activist Mohit Yadav alias Monu Manesar in an attempt-to-murder case registered at the Pataudi police station on February 7.
Read here: ‘Will move high court’, says family after court rejects Monu Manesar’s bail plea
Yadav was picked up by Haryana Police on September 12 in connection with an incendiary social media post on August 26. He was handed over to the Rajasthan Police after it obtained a transit remand from a court in Nuh, in connection with the February 16 abduction and killing two Muslim men in Haryana’s Bhiwani district, and was subsequently lodged at a high security prison in Alwar.
However, the Bajrang Dal functionary was brought back to Haryana on Saturday on a production warrant in connection with the attempt-to-murder case in Pataudi’s Baba Shah Mohalla, which began as a clash between two groups on February 6, leading to Yadav allegedly opening fire from his licensed pistol, injuring a person from a minority community, said police.
Mubin Khan, a local resident, alleged his son was shot at, leading to a first information report (FIR) being registered against Yadav and his associates at the Pataudi police station on February 7.
After bringing him back to the state, the Gurugram police said Yadav was produced before the court of Tarannum Khan, chief judicial magistrate taluka court (subsidiaries to district courts), Pataudi, where they demanded his seven-day remand. However, the court granted only a four-day remand.
“We wanted his remand to recover his weapon and cartridge from his friend’s place in Kolhapur in Maharashtra, and one pistol from Keshavpur at Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, that he has confessed to. We need to take him to Sirsa and Hisar to identify his friends involved in the attempt-to-murder case,” said a senior police officer, requesting anonymity.
Police said that they will conduct raids in Jaipur and Sirsa to arrest Yadav’s associates who have been absconding. “We also have to identify the house where he had hidden the rifle. Also, we need to question him regarding his connection with gangsters,” the officer said.
Last month, Rajasthan Police had said that Yadav wanted to join gangster Lawrence Bishnoi’s outfit, and confirmed a video chat between the two in 2022. Yadav and Bishnoi had the chat when the latter was in the custody of the Punjab police for his alleged role in the murder of Congress leader and Punjabi singer Shubhdeep Singh Sidhu, popularly known as Sidhu Moosewala, they said.
Speaking about Yadav’s police remand, his counsel Kulbhushan Bhardwaj said, “Police argued that they wanted to check connections between Monu Manesar and gangster Lawrence Bishnoi… Rajasthan Police have confirmed the existence of a video chat between the two in 2022, but it is still under investigation whether Monu Manesar had actually said this or he is being falsely implicated.”
Yadav was arrested by Nuh police from Manesar on September 12 for posting inflammatory content on his Facebook profile on August 26, two days before right-wing groups tried to take out a religious procession in Nuh on August 28.
Read here: Hindu outfits protest outside DC office in Gurugram, demand release of Monu Manesar
He is also named as a suspect in another FIR, registered at Deeg in Rajasthan, for his alleged involvement in the murder of cousins Junaid, 35, and Nasir, 27, who were allegedly abducted from near Ghatmika, then assaulted and killed on suspicion of being cow smugglers. The duo’s charred remains were recovered from a burned SUV in Loharu, Bhiwani on February 16.
Yadav is also accused of inciting the July 31 communal clashes in Nuh, in which mobs attacked a Hindu religious procession organised by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal, with the ensuing violence barrelling into neighbouring districts and cities, including Gurugram, leading to the death of six people, with a further 88 injured.
