Cow vigilante accused of lynching Muslim men blames Bajrang Dal before suicide
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Lokesh Singla, a cow vigilante accused in the 2023 lynching and murder of two Muslim men in Haryana’s Bhiwani, allegedly died by suicide on June 5 after recording a video in which he blamed senior Bajrang Dal members for harassing him, prompting the police to register an FIR on Tuesday based on a complaint filed by his wife.
The FIR, which includes charges of abetment to suicide and criminal conspiracy, names three individuals who were reportedly mentioned in the video and have been booked under sections related to collective criminal action, reported Maktoob Media.
Singla’s body was discovered near railway tracks on the Agra-Palwal route and was handed over to his family following a post-mortem, while the police confirmed that an investigation into his death and the allegations raised in the video is currently underway.
In the recording that was allegedly sent to his wife via WhatsApp, Singla accused three persons of stalking, threatening, and attempting to implicate him in false cases, which has now become a key element in the ongoing probe.
He had previously been one of 13 people named in the case concerning the killing of two Muslim men—Nasir, 25, and Junaid, 35—from Rajasthan’s Ghatmika village, who were abducted, murdered, and burnt on suspicion of cow smuggling by a group linked to cow protection activities, led by Bajrang Dal member Monu Manesar.
The charred bodies of the victims were found inside a burnt vehicle near the Rajasthan-Haryana border in February 2023, an incident that sparked widespread outrage across the country.
Further developments emerged in January 2024 when an FIR revealed that Singla, associated with a cow protection group, had tipped off the police about cattle smugglers allegedly heading towards Ghatmika, which happened to be the home of the two victims. Later that year, Junaid’s 14-year-old daughter, Parwana, reportedly died of a heart attack, with her family attributing the loss to prolonged trauma following her father’s death.
