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Rajasthan CM: Haryana Police not helping nab Monu Manesar
Monu Manesar was named (along with 21 others) in a police case in connection with the February abduction and killing of two cattle traders in Bhiwani.
Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday tweeted his rebuttal to his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar’s assertion that the Rajasthan police were free to arrest Bajrang Dal member Monu Manesar, calling it an effort to divert attention from Khattar’s “failure” to check violence in Haryana.
Monu was named (along with 21 others) in a police case in connection with the February abduction and killing of two cattle traders in Bhiwani. Two videos released by the cow vigilante are also believed to be the trigger for recent communal violence in Haryana, that has left six people dead.
“The chief minister of Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar, gives a statement in the media that he will help the Rajasthan Police in every possible way, but when our police went to arrest the accused of the Nasir-Junaid murder case, the Haryana Police did not cooperate, rather registered an FIR against the Rajasthan Police,” Gehlot said in a tweet.
“The Haryana Police is not cooperating with the Rajasthan Police in finding the accused who are absconding. Khattar failed to stop the violence happening in Haryana and is now giving such statements just to divert the attention of the people which is not appropriate.”
Gehlot’s reference to the Haryana police filing a case against Rajasthan police personnel was to an FIR registered on February 21 on a complaint by the family of Shrikant Pandit, a member of Gau Rakshak Dal, who alleged that policemen from Rajasthan barged into their home on February 17, and hit Kamlesh Pandit, who was nine months pregnant at the time, ostensibly causing a miscarriage. On February 20, the Nuh police exhumed the “foetus” and a post-mortem examination was also conducted.
Gehlot’s tweets came a day after the Haryana chief minister responded to criticism that his government had gone easy on Monu Manesar, who was wanted for the murder of two Muslim men in February this year, saying that the Rajasthan police were free to act against Monu Manesar.
“Rajasthan... registered an FIR against...(Monu) Manesar. We have told them that whatever help is required to look for him will be provided...,” Khattar said at a press conference in Chandigarh.
To be sure, Haryana home minister Anil Vij, in an interview to HT, said that Monu Manesar “is a wanted criminal” on the run, that there is a case against him in Haryana as well, and that “we will catch him”.
Former Haryana chief minister and Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Thursday blamed the communal violence in the state on the incumbent BJP-JJP government, accusing it of failing on the law-and-order front.
“Riots do not benefit any side, and innocent people have to bear the consequences… Shops of innocent shopkeepers were burned down, houses of people were attacked, and many lives were lost. Offices, schools, MNCs had to declare a shutdown. It is clear that the BJP-JJP government has proved to be a complete failure in handling law and order. It has no right to remain in power,” Hooda said in a statement.
