YouTuber on the Run After 2 Muslim Men Were Found Burnt to Death

Police in India are on a manhunt for a YouTuber who went missing after being accused of burning two men to death. 

Monu Manesar, whose real name is Mohit Yadav, is a prominent vigilante from the north Indian state of Haryana, who runs a “cow protection” group that claims to rescue the animals from alleged illegal smugglers. Manesar is among six named in a police complaint filed by the family of two Muslim men, identified by the police as only Nasir and Junaid, whose charred remains were discovered in a car on February 16. 

Police say they’ve yet to find out how those two men were burnt to death, but the family of Nasir and Junaid—who were nephew and uncle—claim they were victims of cow vigilantism. 

“Muslims are getting targeted in all sorts of ways,” Wasim Akram Meo, a local activist and a distant relative of the family, told VICE World News. “But to burn them is a whole new level of hate crime. It’s unprecedented.”

In a video statement posted on Feb. 17, Manesar denied killing Nasir and Junaid, saying he’s ready to help the investigation. Last weekend, police told the media that Manesar is “untraceable.”

According to a police statement, Nasir and Junaid were on their way from Rajasthan’s Bharatpur district to Alwar, some 144 kilometres away, in a car borrowed from a friend. Shyam Singh, police superintendent in Bharatpur, told the media that Junaid has a “criminal history” of allegedly smuggling cows. The family denies this. 

Meo said that the vigilantes first abducted Junaid and Nasir, assaulted them and turned them in to a local police station alleging they’re cow smugglers. The cops refused to take them so the gang put Junaid and Nasir – who were already in “half-dead” condition after the assault–in the car and set it on fire. “By the time they were found, there were only skeletons there,” said Meo. VICE World News could not independently verify this.

Cows are considered sacred in Hindu-majority India, a status that’s led to strict laws banning cow slaughter and smuggling in some Indian states—laws that have only tightened under Hindu nationalist prime minister Narendra Modi. Most in the cattle trade are Indian Muslims, who have increasingly become targets of Hindu vigilante groups accusing them of smuggling cows or cow meat. 

The 2019 Human Rights Watch report counted 44 killings—36 of whom were Muslims—by cow vigilantes. The same report says senior members of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) support this vigilante campaign, while authorities either fail to stop it or are complicit. 

Manesar is part of a local chapter of extremist Hindu militant organisation Bajrang Dal, which is currently campaigning for him with the hashtag #ISupportMonuManesar. They claim the allegation is a conspiracy to taint the reputation of cow vigilantes. 

VICE World News was unable to contact 28-year-old Manesar on his publicly available phone number, email ID and social media channels. Meo, the activist, says Manesar is well-known for violence and has been accused of committing at least 10 similar violent acts of cow vigilantism. 

Last month, the family of 22-year-old Muslim man Waris Khan accused Manesar and his vigilante group of beating Khan to death for allegedly smuggling cattle. The police refused to register a police complaint while Manesar denied killing him too. 

Manesar was also named in another incident on Feb. 6 in Haryana’s city Gurgaon, where 20-year-old Muslim man Mohin Khan was shot but survived. 

Mohammad Zubair, an Indian journalist who co-founded the non-profit fact-checking platform Alt News, said he’s been tracking Manesar since 2016, after a video went viral of a vigilante group of which he was part force-feeding two Muslim men a concoction of cow dung, cow urine, milk and curd. 

“This kind of reach has made people like Manesar heroes, which gives them courage to commit crimes like this,” Zubair told VICE World News. “The political atmosphere and the government are directly in support of men like him.”

Over the years, Manesar and his group have worked increasingly closely with the police and even accompanied them to arrest alleged cow smugglers and assault them before the police arrests them. Most of these expeditions were documented and posted by Manesar himself on his YouTube page. 

“In police reports, Manesar’s name is featured as an ‘informer,’” Zubair said. 

A news report by The Indian Express found that in Junaid and Nasir’s case, at least three of the accused, including Manesar, already had close ties with authorities as “informers” on alleged cow smuggling police operations. Zubair and his team also documented, through photos posted on Manesar’s Facebook page, the vigilante associating with senior police officials and prominent BJP members, including Home Minister Amit Shah. All these photos have now disappeared. 

The Facebook page of the Bajrang Dal branch that Manesar was a part of has locked its account too. Zubair said that over the years, Manesar has gained extreme popularity through his online content targeting a right-wing extremist audience. 

Last year, Manesar, received a “Creator Award” from YouTube for hitting more than 100,000 subscribers. His videos show high-speed car chases with alleged cow smugglers. Zubair said Manesar’s videos initially included scenes of them beating up alleged smugglers, but they’ve since been removed. Comments on his videos range from “Jai hindu raj jai gau mata ki (All hail Hindu nation, all hail our mother cow)”, to “Bhai pitai ki bhi video daalo (Brother, upload a video of beating them up too).”

In India, social media companies have been accused of recklessly hosting videos of hate crimes posted by vigilantes who want to increase their following. For Manesar, the negative impact, like the current arrest warrant, is a small price to pay for the larger work of cow vigilantism, Zubair said. 

Meo, in the meantime, said the locals of Bharatpur have started protesting to demand justice, but there’s a lot of fear on the ground. 

“Everyone is terrified here right now,” he said. “We’re protesting today, but we know we’re all in danger.”

Follow Pallavi Pundir on Twitter.