Day after two charred bodies found in Haryana, anger in Rajasthan village: ‘No cow angle…They were on their way to meet kin’

The Bharatpur police on Friday evening said Rinku Saini, 32, one of the accused named by the families of the victims in the FIR, has been arrested. The police said Saini, a resident of Ferozepur Jhirka in Haryana’s Nuh district, worked as a taxi driver and was part of cow vigilante groups.

At Ghatmika village, Mohammad Jabir, a cousin of Junaid and Nasir, claimed that the two were on their way to a relative’s house in Sikri, Bharatpur, when they were allegedly stopped by the Haryana Police and members of the Bajrang Dal.

“The public there saw one vehicle of the Haryana Police and another vehicle in which the accused were travelling. The police and Bajrang Dal members stopped Junaid and Nasir’s Bolero… They tried to run away but were beaten up and put into the police car and taken to Ferozepur Jhirka. The Bajrang Dal people tried to hand over the duo to the police but the latter refused because their condition was serious. After that, Junaid and Nasir were taken to Loharu (over 160 km away, in Bhiwani district) and burnt alive,” alleges Jabir.

Another of their cousins, Ismail, had lodged a kidnapping complaint at the Gopalgarh police station on February 15, the day Junaid and Nasir went missing. The FIR based on the complaint read, “Today (Wednesday) morning, around 5 am, cousins of the complainant, Junaid and Nasir, had gone in their Bolero car for some personal work. The complainant was drinking tea at around 9 am when a stranger, who was also having tea, said the two men going towards the forest of Gopalgarh around 6 am were badly beaten by 8-10 men (and their) condition was serious and they were kidnapped by their assaulters.”

Rajasthan DGP Umesh Mishra said, “It appears that the two men were intercepted by the accused somewhere near the Rajasthan-Haryana border, after which they were taken to Haryana. We are yet to ascertain the exact spot where the accused stopped them. Further investigation is being conducted. One of the two deceased does have five previous cow smuggling cases registered against him but in the investigation so far, no cow angle has been found. We have detained one person and further investigation is being conducted.”

On the family’s allegations that Haryana Police officials were accompanying members of the Bajrang Dal and that they had taken the victims to Ferozepur Jhirka in Nuh to hand them over to a local police station there, Nuh SP Varun Singla, said, “Rajasthan Police is conducting an investigation in the matter. If negligence of any police officer from Nuh is found in their probe, strict action will be taken.”

Jagat Ram, DSP of Loharu, where the bodies were found, said, “They were kidnapped from Gopalgarh police station in Rajasthan and brought here (Loharu)… Their bodies were found in the Bolero. An FIR has already been registered by the Rajasthan Police. As of now, the Haryana Police have undertaken inquest proceedings under Section 174 of the CrPC. We will extend our support in the investigation if the same is sought by the Rajasthan police.”

Junaid relatives deny the police charge that he had five previous cases of cow smuggling registered against him.

“Why do the police talk about cow smuggling cases against Junaid after his death? If he was guilty, why didn’t they arrest him earlier? There is no cow angle… Junaid and Nasir were going to meet their relatives,” said Jabir.

At the house of Junaid, his wife Sajida wails in grief while cradling her year-old daughter, the youngest of her six children.

“Junaid was the only earning member of his family and would also take care of his brother, who is mentally unstable. He ran a general store near his house,” says Ismail, Junaid’s cousin who lodged the abduction FIR on Wednesday.

A few hundred metres away, at Nasir’s house, his wife Farmeena lies on the ground, surrounded by mourning women.

“Nasir had five other siblings and would earn his livelihood by driving. He was friends with Junaid. The two were going to the house of a relative,” said his sister-in-law Warisa.

At Ghatmika on Friday, Jabir addresses the gathering of a few hundred people, many who have come from nearby villages. They have made their way past brick kilns and potholed roads to the courtyard near which the bodies of Junaid and Nasir are kept. A man holds up a Tricolour, as others talk in low, angry voices, surrounded by policemen. “Pehlu Khan, Umar Mohammad, Rakbar Khan, and now Junaid and Nasir! How many more men will die? Monu Manesar (named in the FIR) is responsible for the deaths of Junaid and Nasir. We won’t part with the bodies as long as he is not arrested,” he cries out. Pehlu Khan, Umar Mohammad and Rakbar Khan were killed by cow vigilantes in Rajasthan between 2017 and 2018.

Those present at the meeting try to console Jabir, as Zahida Khan, Congress MLA from Kaman in Bharatpur and an MoS in the Ashok Gehlot government, assures the crowd that the police will take strict action against the accused. “Main biradari ke saath hoon (I am with the community),” she says.

This is the second such killing of a villager from Ghatmika. Five years ago, in November 2017, Umar Mohammad of Ghatmika was killed allegedly by cow vigilantes, his body dumped on the railway tracks in Alwar district.

After the families refused to hand over the bodies of Junaid and Nasir for the last rites, a committee was set up to hold talks with the administration. Later in the day, the state government agreed to give the two families a compensation of Rs 20 lakh each.

Condemning the incident, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said in a tweet, “One accused has been detained. The search is on for the remaining accused.”