Two suspected cow vigilantes arrested over Rajasthan youths' murders

The Rajasthan Police has arrested two of the eight accused wanted in the alleged abduction and murder of two Muslim men from Bharatpur in Rajasthan by suspected cow vigilantes in Haryana, an official said on Friday.

Inspector General of Police (Bharatpur) Gaurav Srivastava said that the accused Monu Rana alias Narendra and Gogi alias Monu were detained from an isolated hilly area in Dehradun.

The accused involved in the case have connections with Bajrang Dal as well as other organisations including Haryana Gau Raksha Dal, he said.

Nasir (25) and Junaid alias Juna (35), both residents of Ghatmeeka village in Rajasthan's Bharatpur district, were allegedly abducted by cow vigilantes on February 15.

Their bodies were found inside a burnt car in Loharu in Bhiwani in Haryana on the morning of February 16.

During the initial interrogation, both the accused revealed that Junaid and Nasir were abducted on suspicion of cow smuggling. They were badly thrashed and when they failed to fetch any information regarding the smuggling from them, they took them to a local police station in Haryana but the policemen refused to take action seeing the condition they were in, the IG said.

"When Haryana police refused to take action against the duo seeing their condition, the accused took Nasir and Junaid and murdered them. The bodies were put in a vehicle and it was burnt," he said.

On February 17, one of the accused Rinku Saini was arrested and based on his disclosure and other evidence collected by the police, eight others were identified and teams were sent to several states in search of them.

The other six accused, each carrying a cash reward of Rs 10,000 each, are still absconding and being searched.

Apart from them, the police have issued notices to several other suspects including office bearers and members of Haryana Gau Raksha Dal but no one has turned up.

However, the arrest of the two accused will expedite the investigation of the case, IG Srivastava said.

On the involvement of cow vigilante Monu Manesar, the IG said that he was on the suspect list and his role will become clear after the questioning of Monu Rana and Gogi.

The officer said that several teams of the Rajasthan police camped in different districts undercover in search of the accused.

The accused were brought to Bharatpur and placed under arrest on Thursday night under sections 302 (murder), 365 (abduction), 367 (abduction to subject a person to grievous hurt), 368 (wrongful confinement), 201 (Causing disappearance of evidence) and 120 (B) (criminal conspiracy) and 143 (being a member of an unlawful assembly) of the Indian Penal Code.

They were produced before a local court where the magistrate remanded them to police custody for 10 days.