This text is a collaboration with Alt Information, a non-profit fact-checking web site in India.
They describe themselves as “cow protectors” or “gau rakshaks” in Hindi. On social media, they usually put up about finishing up charitable work comparable to working ambulances for sick or injured cows, feeding stray animals and distributing meals to folks.
However at midnight of the evening, their work takes on a extra violent edge. A number of pictures and movies present members of “cow safety” teams chasing, taking pictures at and beating up truck drivers they declare are “smuggling” cows for slaughter.
Cows are thought-about sacred in Hinduism, the dominant faith in India. Many states within the nation prohibit the slaughter of cows and have strict legal guidelines on the transportation, sale and buy of cattle. These legal guidelines have change into extra stringent because the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) got here into energy in 2014.
The vigilantes attacking truck drivers are typically carefully aligned with hardline Hindu nationalist organisations, and a majority of their victims are Muslims. And whereas they declare to be doing this for the sake of the cows, in among the movies the animals can be seen injured from autos overturning throughout aggressive chases.
Elaine Pearson, Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, instructed Bellingcat that cow safety has change into a part of the political agenda of leaders of the BJP and in some circumstances they’ve backed the alleged actions of the suspects “whereas the police have did not take motion in opposition to them”.
Bellingcat and our companions on the Indian outlet Alt Information discovered movies on social media displaying violent assaults by members of 5 self-described animal welfare teams, primarily working within the states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana the place incidents involving cow-related violence have steadily been reported.
(Editor’s notice: We’re not sharing hyperlinks to those movies to keep away from amplifying content material depicting violent assaults seemingly focusing on minority teams. Nonetheless, in case you are a journalist or researcher fascinated with acquiring this dataset, please e mail inquiries@bellingcat.com.)
A number of the leaders of those vigilante teams, after we reached out to them, claimed that they have been working carefully with the native police. One even obtained an award for “cow and social service” from a cupboard minister, alongside law enforcement officials. Senior law enforcement officials from the districts that these teams function in didn’t reply questions on alleged police help for the cow vigilantes after we might attain them.
Whereas these teams almost definitely solely characterize a small fraction of the “cow vigilantes” in India, who’ve been reported on by the media and human rights teams within the nation for years, our investigation sheds extra gentle on how they informally work collectively to hold out mob violence in opposition to truck drivers.
Akhil Bharatiya Gau Seva Samiti (ABGS)
In a video uploaded in February this 12 months, a number of males in vehicles are seen chasing a truck down a freeway at evening. A person from one of many vehicles pulls out a shotgun and fires on the truck. Police sirens could be heard within the background however regulation enforcement doesn’t seem to intrude.
Akhil Bharatiya Gau Seva Samiti (ABGS), which uploaded the automobile chase video, is a belief – a non-profit organisation (NPO) fashioned to advertise charitable actions. It was established in 2022, in keeping with the Indian authorities’s non-profit database. ABGS is predicated in Vrindavan, Mathura district within the state of Uttar Pradesh.
Whereas its day job could appear to be “animal welfare”, movies of its members terrorising truck drivers at evening are routine and oftentimes, promoted by the belief itself.
ABGS’s president Bharat Gautam shared a put up in November 2024 that exhibits a smashed-up automobile, with an indication for “Akhil Bhrataiya Gau Seva Samiti” on high of it, after what he described in Hindi as a “heavy encounter with cow smugglers”.
Alt Information spoke to Gautam, who mentioned that cows are “not an animal”, however a mom determine in Hinduism.
Gautam claimed that his group works carefully with Vrindavan police to save lots of cows from being slaughtered for meat. “We both go on the data we obtain [about trucks transporting cattle] to the police and so they accompany us in our pursuit or we patrol areas we all know are frequented by cow smugglers,” he mentioned, including that the police register circumstances in opposition to the drivers primarily based on complaints filed by his group as soon as the car is caught. A number of calls by Alt Information to the Vrindavan police station’s normal line, in addition to to the direct traces of senior police officers from the district, to request for touch upon ABGS’s claims went unanswered.
“We assist the administration however they will’t do all the pieces so it’s additionally our obligation to guard our faith, our mom,” mentioned Gautam.
Nonetheless, movies shared by his group reveal that the cows they declare to rescue are additionally steadily injured throughout their automobile chases. For instance, a video from February final 12 months exhibits a pick-up truck that had overturned apparently on account of being pursued, inflicting the cattle inside to fall onto the street. The video exhibits three males sitting on the bottom, trying gravely injured, and a number of other folks hitting them whereas posing for pictures. In the meantime, the cows could be seen sprawled on the aspect of the street, additionally apparently injured.
Gautam’s group operates in Uttar Pradesh, which is considered one of no less than 20 out of 28 states in India that both partially or fully bans the slaughter of cows and the sale of beef. When Alt Information requested Gautam about his group’s use of violence, he shifted the blame onto the truck drivers. “Cow smugglers collide with our vehicles … shoot at us,” he mentioned.
ABGS’s headquarters are situated in Vrindavan metropolis’s Venkatesh Temple. When Alt Information contacted the temple, they claimed to don’t have any reference to the group. “We solely lease out an area,” a temple employees member mentioned.
Gautam instructed Alt Information that the temple does provide some help to his group, together with manpower and monetary help. However he maintained that the majority of their work was self-funded and denied receiving any authorities help or donations, regardless of the belief having appealed for donations on social media.
His “cow safety” actions have additionally received him recognition from the Uttar Pradesh authorities. In January final 12 months, he obtained an award for “cow and social service” from a cupboard minister within the state. For this, he was congratulated within the presence of the district Justice of the Peace of Mathura metropolis, who’s liable for sustaining regulation and order within the district, and Mathura police.
A number of calls made to senior law enforcement officials in Mathura district went both unanswered or the officers didn’t remark when requested in regards to the Mathura police’s relationship with Gautam and whether or not they supported cow vigilantism.
Staff Sonu Hindu Palwal
Whereas ABGS’s vigilante actions have been notably seen on social media, our investigations discovered it’s a part of a community of native teams primarily based in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. In a video uploaded on June 27, Gautam says that cow vigilantes have been working beneath the steering of 1 “Sonu Hindu Palwal” the previous 5 years.
In March, movies shared by ABGS and a number of other associated cow vigilante teams present vehicles chasing a truck, and two males being brutally crushed and kicked.
Bellingcat geolocated the incident to a location outdoors a police station in Beri within the state of Haryana primarily based on the timber, lamp posts and a temple seen in considered one of these movies, posted by a member of “Staff Sonu Hindu Palwal”.
This location matches reviews of an assault that came about in Beri on March 9, the place eight males have been arrested after a police officer on the scene filed a criticism. The officer’s criticism said that the mob shouted “we won’t depart you Muslims alive at this time” whereas beating up the 2 males from the truck.
A person who goes solely by one title, Sonu – his official title listed on courtroom paperwork – was among the many eight arrested. He operates a group named after himself referred to as “Staff Sonu Hindu Palwal”. Palwal is the district in Haryana state the place his group primarily operates.
Sonu instructed Bellingcat that he’s the Palwal district president of Gau Raksha Dal (GRD) – actually “cow safety” unit – an NPO established in 2012. The GRD is without doubt one of the largest cow safety networks in India, and its chief instructed Human Rights Watch in 2017 that the community’s volunteers have a presence in almost each state.
When requested in regards to the incident in Beri, Sonu mentioned that whereas they have been chasing the truck drivers, the truck collided with one other automobile, and the passengers of that automobile beat up the truck drivers. “We have been blamed”, he mentioned – though movies of the assault have been shared by members of his personal group.
Bellingcat additionally confirmed Sonu a number of movies posted by cow vigilante teams together with Staff Bharat Gautam that both tagged Staff Sonu Hindu or talked about them of their captions. These movies confirmed males surrounded by members of the cow vigilante teams, who have been hitting them or in any other case treating them roughly. Sonu was personally seen posing for a bunch picture in considered one of these movies, though he wasn’t proven assaulting anybody. When proven these movies, Sonu denied that his group beat folks up.
The cow vigilante chief didn’t straight reply to our questions on what he thought of violence dedicated by members of his group, however mentioned: “Do no matter you need. Our job is to save lots of cows and we are going to proceed to take action.”
The day after his arrest in Beri, movies of Sonu’s supporters celebrating his launch started circulating on Instagram. He and others from his group have been paraded in a automobile with garlands round their necks and a procession adopted them whereas dancing to “Hindutva pop”, a style of music related to the Hindu far-right which carries lyrics with anti-Muslim rhetoric.
The boys crushed up by Sonu and his group in March have been arrested after a counter-complaint beneath animal cruelty and cow safety legal guidelines was filed in opposition to them.
When Alt Information referred to as the police station’s quantity, the police personnel who answered didn’t appear to know whether or not the 2 males seen being attacked within the video have been nonetheless in jail. One in every of them mentioned that the case has been transferred to the crime unit however was unable to offer any particulars of the investigating officers.
Nonetheless, bail orders for the 2 males who have been crushed up, which Bellingcat discovered on the district courtroom web site of Palwal, indicated that they every spent no less than two months in custody earlier than being launched on bail.
Alt Information spoke to Sonu who mentioned that his group is tipped off by “informants” at any time when cows are being transported, receiving particulars such because the car’s route and licence plate quantity.
In response to Sonu, the rescued cows are taken to shelters, whereas the folks transporting them are handed over to the police. He mentioned that the police generally present up after a car is intercepted, however at different occasions the police are with the gau rakshaks throughout these incidents.
Alt Information’s inquiries to the Extra Superintendent of Police, Palwal about Sonu’s declare that the police accompanies his group of their pursuits of truck drivers went unanswered.
Bellingcat additionally discovered hyperlinks between Staff Sonu and a Mumbai-registered charitable belief, via a photograph Sonu posted displaying a big truck which he described as an “ambulance for sick or injured cows in Palwal”. There’s a Google Pay quantity proven on the car for receiving donations.
The signage on the ambulance says the service is “courtesy of” an organisation referred to as “Shri Mahesh Chand Dalmia Charitable Belief”, which seems to be a misspelling of “Shri Mahesh Chandra Dalmia Charitable Belief”, a registered belief primarily based in Mumbai.
Sonu instructed Alt Information that Shri Mahesh Chandra Dalmia Charitable Belief supported his group’s ambulance after native monks in Vrindavan launched the organisation to his work.
In response to the federal government’s NPO database, the belief works within the sectors of “Training & Literacy, Any Different, Well being & Household Welfare”. The trustee, or one that manages the belief, is listed as Satyadeo Banka.
Banka is repeatedly tagged on Fb in movies of Staff Sonu’s assaults on truck drivers. His posts on the platform additionally steadily promote concepts in keeping with Hindutva, a nationalist ideology that advocates for establishing India as a Hindu nation-state.
We tried to contact Banka on social media however didn’t obtain any response. Alt Information contacted the belief’s president, Rahul Dalmia, on the cellphone and emailed him about his organisation’s relationship with Staff Sonu Hindu Palwal, asking whether or not he was conscious of the group’s violent actions and Banka being tagged of their “cow safety” movies. Dalmia declined to be quoted when requested in regards to the belief’s work over the cellphone, and didn’t reply, as of the time of publication, to additional questions over e mail about whether or not the belief supported cow vigilantes in any method.
Stay For Nation
In 2021, Sonu congratulated somebody he known as “LFN’s Parveen” for becoming a member of the Haryana authorities’s cow safety pressure, in a put up on Fb. LFN is the abbreviation of “Stay For Nation”, a registered NPO in Haryana’s Faridabad which goals to “save cows”. This group was additionally concerned in a automobile chase final 12 months that resulted within the loss of life of a 20-year-old man.
On Aug. 23, 2024, Aryan Mishra, 20, was out along with his associates on a drive when 5 cow vigilantes – all LFN members – allegedly “mistook” them to be cattle smugglers and started chasing their automobile earlier than firing at them. Mishra was killed within the incident.
One of many accused who was arrested, Anil Kaushik, reportedly instructed Mishra’s father that he thought the boy was Muslim and regretted killing a Brahmin, the very best rating caste within the Hindu caste system. Kaushik recognized himself as a member of Haryana authorities’s particular cow safety process pressure, which Parveen can be part of.
His full title is Parveen Vashisth and his Fb bio says that he’s a member of the Haryana authorities’s “particular cow safety process pressure”. Vashisth additionally names the duty pressure whereas sharing movies on Instagram of cow vigilantes from Staff Sonu Hindu chasing vehicles.
Alt Information reached out to the “Haryana Gau Seva Aayog”, the federal government physique liable for overseeing the duty pressure. Its chairman, Sharwan Garg, mentioned that anybody can have interaction in cow safety work independently, offered they keep “throughout the limits of the regulation and coordinate with the authorities”.
Nonetheless, Vashisth’s movies on Instagram displaying Staff Sonu Hindu chasing after vehicles, taking pictures at them and assaulting drivers seem to point out that these “limits” are sometimes breached.
Gau Seva Mission
One other organisation that claims to work for cow welfare and operates in the identical community uploaded a video on Jan. 9, 2025, displaying vigilantes capturing a person they claimed was a “cow smuggler”. In a number of movies, the person appears to be like gravely injured and bloody. His car can be badly broken.
The organisation, “Gau Seva Mission”, is predicated in Vrindavan, like ABGS. Its chief, Govind Singh, is steadily tagged in movies of assaults on alleged “cow smugglers” together with Bharat Gautam, Sonu and Parveen Vashisth.
Singh instructed Alt Information that he’s a veterinary physician by occupation and bears most of Gau Seva Mission’s bills via his non-public work.
Gau Seva Mission seems to be recognized to the Uttar Pradesh authorities. In November final 12 months, Singh uploaded pictures and movies of the chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh authorities’s cow service fee visiting his workplace.
Singh instructed Alt Information he was once a member of the GRD – the NPO that Sonu is a member of – however left the organisation to begin his personal group, though he didn’t say when this was. One in every of Singh’s Fb posts from three years in the past offers the helpline variety of GRD’s Vrindavan department – the identical quantity is now the helpline quantity of Gau Seva Mission. Its workplace additionally was once on the identical handle because the workplace of the Vrindavan department of GRD no less than till March 2022, in keeping with older pictures of the situation on Singh’s Fb account.
Gau Vansh Sewa Dham
One other organisation that claims to be concerned in animal welfare however whose chief has been concerned in cow-related violence is “Gau Vansh Sewa Dham”, in Haryana’s Faridabad. It’s run by Shiva Dahiya, who instructed Alt Information that the group runs a hospital for cows.
Movies of injured cows being handled are everywhere in the Fb web page of the organisation, and Gau Vansh Sewa Dham makes common appeals for donations to help their rescue and aid efforts. Dahiya mentioned that the cash for his organisation’s work is raised from the group.
Posts on Instagram that tag Dahiya present him seemingly collaborating in or being current on the scene of vigilante assaults focusing on these transporting cattle. For instance, one put up from February exhibits him holding tire puncture spikes to cease a truck. In one other, he’s seen pulling an injured man, who was slumped over, up by his hair so his face was seen as a bunch of vigilantes – additionally together with Sonu – posed for an image with a number of captured males.
Nonetheless, when Alt Information requested if the automobile chases ever obtained violent, Dahiya mentioned, “We don’t wish to do any unsuitable by our arms”. And when requested if he had ever completed something unsuitable, he replied, “By the grace of God, by no means.”
Dahiya denied there was any violence dedicated by “cow protectors”.
“We by no means beat anybody,” he instructed Alt Information.
Shalaka Shinde contributed analysis to this piece.
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