Cow vigilante Bittu Bajrangi arrested in connection with Nuh violence

PTI, Aug 16, 2023, 12:05 PM IST

Cow vigilante Bittu Bajrangi was arrested on Tuesday in connection with communal clashes that erupted in Haryana’s Nuh district on July 31, police said.

Bajrangi alias Rajkumar was questioned in connection with a fresh FIR registered against him and 15-20 others at Nuh’s Sadar police station based on a complaint filed by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Usha Kundu, they said.

Police said Bajrangi, the president of an outfit called the Goraksha Bajrang Force, was taken initially detained by a Crime Investigation Agency team of Tauru from Faridabad and taken for questioning.

A spokesperson of Nuh Police later said he was arrested after the questioning and will be produced in a city court on Wednesday.

The FIR against Bajrangi and the others has been registered under Indian Penal Code sections 148 (riots), 149 (unlawful assembly), 332 (causing hurt), 353, 186 (obstructing a public servant from discharging duty), 395, 397 (armed robbery), and 506 (criminal intimidation) and provisions of the Arms Act, police said.

The officials said efforts are underway to arrest the others and social media is being monitored as well. Strict action will be taken against those who make provocative speeches or spread misleading news, they added.

A senior police officer said Bajrangi and his associates wielded illegal weapons during the VHP procession that came under attack in Muslim-majority Nuh on July 31.

During the violence that ensued, Bajrangi and his associates were brandishing their weapons in the air. ASP Kundu confiscated the weapons but they snatched them from a police vehicle, the official said, alleging that they also threatened the police.

Earlier, Bajrangi was accused of posting inflammatory remarks on social media.

Six people, including two home guards and a cleric, had died in the recent clashes that erupted in Nuh over an attempt to stop a Vishva Hindu Parishad procession and spread to Gurugram.