Jaipur: Court sends Monu Manesar to 15-day judicial custody

Jaipur : A court in Rajasthan’s Deeg district on Thursday sent cow vigilante Monu Manesar to judicial custody for 15 days in connection with the killing of two Muslim men from the state whose charred bodies were found in Haryana’s Bhiwani district in February, officials said.

A police official, on the condition of anonymity, said during his two-day interrogation, Monu Manesar revealed that he was in touch with arrested accused Rinku Saini and the duo had spoken on the phone before and after the abduction of Nasir and Junaid, the victims.

He said Monu Manesar was involved in the crime, but whether he was the mastermind or not is still being probed. “Monu Manesar was presented before a court, which sent him to judicial custody for 15 days,” Gopalgarh Station House Officer (SHO) Santosh Sharma said.

According to the police, four accused -- Monu Rana, Rinku Saini, Gogi and Monu Manesar -- have been arrested in the case. Twenty-six others are suspected to be involved. Monu Manesar -- booked by the Rajasthan Police for the killing of Nasir (25) and Junaid (35) and accused by some of inciting the recent violence in Haryana’s Nuh -- was nabbed by the Haryana Police on Tuesday.

He was handed over to the Rajasthan Police after it obtained a transit remand from a court in Nuh. Monu Manesar -- whose real name is Mohit Yadav -- was then brought to Bharatpur and produced in the court, which sent him to police custody for two days.

In February, Monu Manesar was named in an FIR lodged by the Rajasthan Police after Nasir and Junaid were found dead in a burnt car in Loharu in Haryana’s Bhiwani. The men from Ghatmika village in Deeg (formerly Bharatpur) were allegedly abducted by suspected cow vigilantes, who then crossed the border into Haryana. The Rajasthan Police last month said Monu Manesar’s role in hatching a conspiracy and abetting the crime was “under active investigation”.

Monu Manesar was also accused by some of being a trigger for the July violence in which a VHP procession was targeted by mobs in Nuh -- leading to the deaths of six people in that district and neighbouring Gurugram.