Who is Bittu Bajrangi, the cow vigilante contesting as independent candidate in Haryana Assembly elections?
Bittu Bajrangi, as he is popularly called by his supporters, is the founder of the Gau Raksha Bajrang Force, an outfit known for its cow vigilantism in Haryana and parts of NCR. The 45-year-old is said to be working as a fruit and vegetables trader at the Gazipur market and Dabua market in Faridabad.
As the election battle heats up in Haryana, candidates are filing their nominations to contest the upcoming polls. One of the 74 candidates who filed their papers on Monday was an independent candidate to contest from the Faridabad NIT Assembly constituency.
CREDIT: BCCL
Who is Bittu Bajrangi
Rajkumar Panchal, better known as Bittu Bajrangi, has forayed into electoral politics as an independent candidate in the Haryana Assembly elections.
Bajrangi, as he is popularly called by his supporters, is the founder of the Gau Raksha Bajrang Force, an outfit known for its cow vigilantism in Haryana and parts of NCR.
The 45-year-old is said to be working as a fruit and vegetables trader at the Gazipur market and Dabua market in Faridabad when he is not on the road chasing vehicles suspected of trafficking cattle. For a long time, he was believed to have been associated with the Bajrang Dal, but in 2023, the VHP stated that he had no links to the outfit.
CREDIT: REUTERS
How cow vigilante groups operate
According to reports, Bajrangi and his men have been running the cow vigilante group for the last three years and, like similar outfits, have the silent blessing of the police. Due to their well-orchestrated network of volunteers, the police often depend on cow vigilante groups to get information about cattle trafficking. However, using this access, cow vigilante groups, who can only act as informants, often become law enforcers and get themselves involved in capturing suspected smugglers. Many such groups even post their acts on social media and have blanket impunity.
Bajarangi's role in Nuh violence
Bajrangi, who is also known to make inflammatory speeches, became infamous in 2023 following the communal violence in Nuh, in which six people, including two home guards and a mosque cleric, died.
CREDIT: BCCL
Following this, Bajrangi was arrested in a dramatic fashion, a rare instance for him and cow vigilante groups. He was granted bail just two weeks later.
Earlier this year, a video had surfaced on social media showing him assaulting a man with a stick, even as a Haryana cop in uniform stood by.
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Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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