On Manohar Khattar’s offer to help in Monu Manesar case, Ashok Gehlot responds

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Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday tweeted his rebuttal to his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar’s claim that the Rajasthan police were free to arrest Bajrang Dal member Monu Manesar, saying it was an effort to divert attention from Khattar’s failure to check violence in Haryana.

In a post on Twitter, Gehlot also recalled that when a police team went to Nuh district of Haryana to arrest suspects in the murder of Junaid and Nasir, a first information report (FIR) was filed against the Rajasthan police team.

The charred bodies of the two men – Junaid (35) and Nasir (27) – who were cousins, were found inside a vehicle in Haryana’s Bhiwani district on February 16. The families of the deceased said they were kidnapped, beaten and murdered by members of the Bajrang Dal – a claim rejected by the outfit. The Rajasthan police probed the case since the two were abducted and first assaulted near Piruka forest in the state. It is unclear how their bodies were found 165km away in Bhiwani.

“Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar has given a statement in media that he will help the Rajasthan police in every possible way. But when our police went to arrest the accused of the Nasir-Junaid murder case, the Haryana police did not cooperate and rather registered an FIR against the Rajasthan Police. The Haryana Police is not cooperating with the Rajasthan Police to trace the accused. Khattar has failed to stop the violence in Haryana and is making such statements just to divert the attention of people, which is not appropriate.”

Gehlot’s rebuttal comes a day after the Haryana chief minister responded to criticism that his government had gone easy on Monu Manesar who was wanted for the murder of two Muslim men in February this year, saying that the Rajasthan police were free to act against Monu Manesar.

“Rajasthan… registered an FIR against…(Monu) Manesar. We have told them that whatever help is required to look for him will be provided…,” Khattar said at a press conference in Chandigarh.

The communal clashes in Haryana are believed to have been triggered by three videos released on social media — two by Monu Manesar and another by fellow cow vigilante Bittu Bajrangi — between Sunday and Monday. In one of the videos, Monu Manesar can be heard saying that he will reach Nuh to participate in the procession and urging people to visit temples in Mewat in large numbers.

Gehlot’s reference to the Haryana police filing a case against Rajasthan police personnel was a reference to the FIR registered on February 21 on a complaint by the family of Shrikant Pandit, a member of Gau Rakshak Dal, who alleged that policemen from Rajasthan barged into their home on February 17, and hit Kamlesh Pandit, who was nine months pregnant at the time, ostensibly causing a miscarriage. On February 20, the Nuh police exhumed the “foetus” and a post mortem was also conducted.

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