Bittu Bajrangi was caught from near his house nearly 20 days after violence broke out
Bittu Bajrangi, a Bajrang Dal member and cow vigilante from Haryana, has been arrested in connection with the communal violence that took place last month in Nuh, Gurugram and other areas of the state. There are allegations that provocative comments by him and fellow Bajrang Dal activist Monu Manesar had triggered the violence.
Accused in several other cases, Bittu Bajrangi was caught from near his Faridabad house nearly 20 days after violence broke out.
CCTV footage from the area showed plainclothes policemen, armed with sticks and guns, catching him after a long chase. He has been accused of rioting, violence, threatening, obstructing government work, stopping a government officer from duty and causing harm with a deadly weapon.
A spokesperson of Faridabad police said Bittu Bajrangi's associates are being identified from the available videos. They will also be arrested.
"Whoever obstructs the work of the police will not be spared. Social media is being monitored... The police will also take strict action against those who spread any kind of provocative speech or misleading news," the spokesperson said.
A fruit and vegetables trader at the Gazipur market and Dabua maket in Faridabad, Bittu Bajrangi alias Raj Kumar, has been running a cow vigilante group for the last three years.
In the last month alone, he was booked in three cases of inciting religious sentiments. After the Nuh violence, a case was registered against the Goraksha Bajrang Force chief in Faridabad.
Speaking of how the violence started during a procession of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Chaudhary Aftab, the MLA from Nuh, had said, "People were already angry with the statements of Monu Manesar, Bittu Bajrangi and rumours spread that Monu had come to Manesar... so the violence started".
The 18-hour communal clash last month had claimed five lives and left at least 70 people injured, spreading from Nuh to Gurugram and upto Badshahpur, 40 km away, with lightening speed.
A mosque was torched post-midnight, more than a hundred vehicles were set ablaze and vandalised as mobs went on rampage. The dead include two security personnel and two civilians, one of them a cleric of the mosque.