Three accused in Bhiwani double homicide case had ties with local police

One of the accused in the case is Monu Manesar, a Bajrang Dal member and a notable Haryana cow vigilante

Among the five individuals accused of the murders of Rajasthan residents Junaid and Nasir last week, three allegedly shared close ties with Haryana's Nuh district police. It is now believed that they often acted as informers when it came to cow-smuggling cases, and often accompanied law enforcement officials on their raids.

The charred remains of the victims were discovered in a car in Bhiwani on February 16.

The aforementioned three individuals — Rinku Saini, Lokesh Singla and Shrikant — have been cited as police informants in around four FIRs, as per a report published by The Indian Express. The FIRs were lodged at Nuh’s Ferozepur Jhirka and Nagina police stations.

Another name in the list of the five accused is that of Monu Manesar, who is a Bajrang Dal member and a notable Haryana cow vigilante. Manesar had earlier denied his involvement in the incident in a social media video.

Notably, not even a month before this incident, Manesar was charged with the murder of another man, 22-year-old Waris Khan, in Nuh. A complaint was launched against him by the deceased’s family, but the police did not lodge an official FIR.

Read | Sahil Gehlot had plans to push Nikki Yadav out of car and pass it of as accident: Sources

An FIR in the Bhiwani case states that police had barricaded off an area based on the information by “secret informer (guptchar) and cow vigilante (gau rakshak) Rinku”. It was Rinku again who informed the police that Nasir and Junaid were taken to a location in Ferozepur Jhirka by a number of cow vigilantes. The Haryana Police has said that they are currently investigating the situation.

The names of eight more people were added to the FIR on Monday. Loharu DSP Jagat Singh told The Indian Express, “We got information about the incident at 8 am Thursday. With the help of the chassis number of the Bolero car, we contacted the owner of the vehicle. We carried out a preliminary investigation and informed the SHO of Gopalgarh (Rajasthan) who reached the spot.”