Monu Manesar in two-week judicial custody in murder attempt case

GURGAON: Controversial cow vigilante Mohit Yadav alias Monu Manesar was produced before a Pataudi court on completion of his four-day police custody and sent to the district jail in Bhondsi for 14-day judicial custody on Wednesday.

Monu has been named in two other cases - one linked to hate speech after the July 31 riots in Nuh and the other, a double murder in Rajasthan's Bharatpur. He was brought to Haryana from Rajasthan on October 7 on a production remand in a third, an attempt to murder case filed in Gurgaon's Pataudi this year. Pataudi resident Mubeen Khan had alleged on February 7 that his son Moheen (20) was shot at by Monu and his associates when a scuffle between two groups broke out in Babbarshah Mohallah the night before. Just a week later, Monu and his cow vigilante network active in south Haryana were accused of killing two men from Bharatpur - Nasir and Junaid - whose burnt bodies were found in a charred SUV in Bhiwani on February 16.

Absconding for months though he was active on social media, Monu was booked in August for a provocative social media video posted two days before right-wing outfits announced they would complete the disrupted Brijmandal Jalabhishek Yatra, which was suspected when riots erupted in Nuh on July 31.

The July violence was preceded by days of incendiary online posts by individuals from two communities, and many of them centred around speculation that Monu will be present at the yatra. Nuh police on September 12 arrested Monu from Manesar, after which Rajasthan Police took his custody to investigate the Nasir and Junaid murder case. Subsequently, Gurgaon police took his custody and the court of judicial magistrate Tarannum Khan issued the order for 14-day judicial custody. Cops told TOI they have recovered a rifle, two shells for used bullets, four live bullets and an SUV that were allegedly used by Monu at the crime spot in Pataudi.