Who is Monu Manesar, the cow vigilante detained in double murder and Nuh violence cases?

Almost 45 days after communal riots broke out in Haryana’s Nuh, the Haryana Police has detained Monu Manesar, a well-known cow vigilante, in Gurugram for his alleged involvement in the clashes. He is also wanted in connection with a double murder of two Muslim men from Rajasthan, whose bodies were found in a car in Haryana in February. According to an NDTV report, Manesar has been detained under bailable sections of the Information Technology Act and will most likely get bail by evening. However, they will hand him over to the Rajasthan Police in the double-murder matter. Who is Monu Manesar, who has been linked to the clashes? What role did he play? We dig deeper and get you all the answers. Monu Manesar, the cow vigilante Monu Manesar, whose real name is Mohit Yadav, is a 30-year-old self-confessed cow vigilante. He joined Bajrang Dal as a district co-coordinator from Manesar in 2011 and earns a living by sub-letting rooms to labourers in the Manesar area. Earlier in February, speaking to Indian Express, he had said: “I grew up around cows. Meri aasthaa hai gau maata se aur mera dharm hai inki raksha karna. (It is a matter of faith for me and it is my duty to protect the holy cow). After witnessing atrocities against cows, I vowed to rescue them and to stop illegal cattle smuggling, which is rampant in places like Mewat (Nuh) and nearby districts.” [caption id=“attachment_12941782” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Monu Manesar, whose real name is Mohit Yadav, describes himself as a ‘gau rakshak’ and social activist. He joined Bajrang Dal as a district co-coordinator from Manesar in 2011. Image Courtesy: @MonuManesar/Twitter[/caption] He’s also been quoted as telling Alt News that cow-vigilantism was his true calling. “While returning home from college one day, my friends and I chanced upon a truck full of cow remains with blood dripping from it. We stopped the truck and informed the police. Two persons belonging to the Muslim community were apprehended. This was when I realised that Gaumata and our Dharam were being dishonoured,” he reportedly the website. In the same month, he was also made the head of the district’s cow protection force and also a member of the civil defence team of the district administration in Manesar. In addition to this, he also runs a YouTube page ‘Monu Manesar Bajrang Dal’, which has over two lakh subscribers. He has also been involved in efforts to combat love jihad – in which Hindu women are allegedly forcibly converted by Muslim men. **Also read: Nuh Violence: Who is Bittu Bajrangi, the cow vigilante arrested in Faridabad?** Manesar is known to put up incendiary posts on his various social media accounts. On 30 January, he had written, “Jab tak todenge nahin jab tak chodhenge nahin.” (Till the time we don’t break them [cow smugglers], we will not leave them.) His earlier Instagram posts – his account has now been made private – also showed him boasting of his many guns and cars. He’s also been seen grabbing victims by their hair on social media. While Manesar maintains that his vigilantism has never amounted to violence, several social media photos and news reports show otherwise. Early pictures of his vigilantism on social media show members of his group grabbing the accused person’s hair. There are also other images of purported cow smugglers having swollen and bloody faces. He’s also been known to make hate speeches in public. In November 2021, according to a report in The Wire, Manesar had issued violent threats against Muslims in the form of slogans at Gurugram’s Sector 12. “Hindu ke gaddaaron ko, Goli maaro saalon ko (Shoot the traitors of Hinduism)”. [caption id=“attachment_12941822” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Monu Manesar made headlines in February when he was named the main accused in the murder and abduction of two men in Bhiwani. Image Courtesy: @MonuManesar/Twitter[/caption] Monu Manesar and the double murder Monu Manesar shot to national infamy in February when he was accused of killing two men, identified as Junaid and Nasir, from Rajasthan, whose charred bodies were found inside a burnt vehicle in Bhiwani on 16 February. In the FIR, Junaid’s cousin, Ismail, alleged that Monu and five other Bajrang Dal members kidnapped the victims and then burnt them alive. However, the Director General of Police in Rajasthan, Umesh Mishra, had denied Manesar’s direct involvement in the case, saying that that he was not present at the location of the double murder. The police were focused on determining whether he had any indirect involvement in the case. **Also read: Haryana violence: Who is Ahsan Mewati ‘Pakistani’, the YouTuber who has threatened to kill cow vigilante Monu Manesar?** Later, the state police issued a statement saying: “It is clarified that DGP, Rajasthan and Rajasthan Police have not given any clean chit to Monu Manesar in Nasir Junaid murder case.” The authorities were unable to catch Manesar since then despite the fact that he kept posting messages and videos on his different social media accounts. Notably, just days before the murder of Junaid and Nasir, Manesar was also accused of murder of a man named Waaris in Haryana’s Nuh area. Waaris’s family accused Manesar of chasing and attacking Waaris and his associates, Nafis and Shaukeen, on suspicions of cow smuggling in the early hours of 28 January. The police, however, gave a clean chit to the self-declared cow vigilante in that matter. Manesar and Nuh violence But how is it that Manesar was linked to the violence that broke out in Nuh, in July, in which at least six people were killed? For those who don’t remember, the violence had begun on 31 July during a ‘Jal Abhishek Yatra’ organised by the Vishva Hindu Parishad, and then spread to adjoining areas, including Gurugram . [caption id=“attachment_12941762” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] A damaged vehicle after clashes broke out during a ‘Brij Mandal Jalabhishek Yatra’, in Nuh. PTI[/caption] He had posted a video earlier, claiming he would attend the Nuh religious procession and appealing to his supporters to come out in large numbers. **Also read: Haryana violence: How social media posts fuelled communal hate before the clashes** Based on the rumours that he would be present at the procession, the police, said that the mostly Muslim residents of Nuh, who were angry over the killings of Nasir and Junaid, attacked the procession with stones and burned vehicles along the way – which consequently turned into the communal clashes. Manesar was later quoted as telling news agency PTI that he did not participate in the procession on the advice of the VHP, which feared that his presence would create tension. With inputs from agencies