A Bajrang Dal leader from Moradabad’s communally sensitive Kanth area was arrested on Wednesday, along with three of his aides, for allegedly slaughtering a cow and hatching a conspiracy to implicate a local police officer and a Muslim man in a false case.
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Moradabad Senior Superintendent of Police Hemraj Meena told The Hindu that police have arrested Monu Bishnoi, Raman Chaudhary, Rajiv Chaudhary, and Shahabuddin, in connection with two recent incidents of cow slaughter that took place in the Chhajlet police station area.
Suspicious cow slaughter incidents
On January 16, the police had received information about the head of a cow found lying on the Kanwar Path. An FIR was lodged against unidentified persons under Sections 3, 5 and 8 of Uttar Pradesh’s law against cow slaughter, and police teams were formed to probe the matter. The Kanwar Path is a road deriving its name from the Kanwar Yatra, an annual pilgrimage of Lord Shiva’s devotees to fech water from the Ganga and offer it in shrines.
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“On January 29, police received information of cow slaughtering happening in the forest area of Chetrampur village, which again falls under Chhajlet police station,” Mr. Meena said. “This time a trackpant was found from the spot which was lying next to the cow carcasses. It had some cash in the pockets, along with a phone number of one Mehmood written in a diary, and his picture too. Police searched Mehmood and interrogated him.”
The police were suspicious about two such cases of cow slaughter happening in a sensitive area within a fortnight, Mr. Meena said. ‘Something wasn’t looking right,” he added.
Conspiracy to frame Muslim
During interrogation, Mr. Mehmood informed the police that he had an ongoing feud with a fellow villager named Shahbuddin, who suspected him of being involved in his brother’s murder. Police recovered the call details of Mr. Shahbuddin, along with his mobile’s locations. Upon questioning, he revealed how he had sought the Bajrang Dal leader’s help to frame Mr. Mehmood.
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“Shahbuddin told us that he met Monu via Raman and Rajiv and they asked him to slaughter a cow and place its carcasses at respective places and the plan to implicate Mehmood was hatched. Monu has also given ₹2,000 to Shahbuddin to find the animal for slaughter,” the SSP said.
Police once again used the record of call details and mobile locations to trace the connections between the four accused, and found that Mr. Bishnoi and both Mr. Chuadharys had been present during the protest by villagers that took place after the cow carcasses were found at the two locations.
Plan to implicate police
“We managed to arrest the four accused while two of their associates, Jamshed and Naieem, who helped Shahbuddin in cow slaughter are absconding,” Mr. Meena said. When the police tracked the criminal records of the accused, it was found that Mr. Bishnoi had been previously booked and served jail time in several cases, including attempt to murder, rioting, and criminal intimidation, among others.
The police Mr. Bishnoi used to pressurise them to get illegal work done. “Through cow slaughter incidents too, Mr. Bishnoi wanted to create pressure on the local police so that they would agree to let him carry on with his illegal activities. It was planned that they will protest against police for failing to control crime in the first case, on January 16 only, but things didn’t go as per their plan. Hence, the second cow was killed for the purpose,” said the SSP. He added that while Mr. Bishnoi was previously associated with the Bajrang Dal, his present designation is not known to police.
Mr. Bishnoi’s Facebook account says that he is the ‘Zila Dharam Prachar Prasar Pramukh’ of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal. He had also shared some videos of the incidents on social media, calling for strict action against the police as well as against those who slaughtered the animal.