This text is a collaboration with Alt Information, a non-profit fact-checking web site in India. Learn the article on Alt Information’ web site right here.
They describe themselves as “cow protectors” or “gau rakshaks” in Hindi. On social media, they typically publish about finishing up charitable work comparable to working ambulances for sick or injured cows, feeding stray animals and distributing meals to folks.
However at the hours of darkness of the night time, their work takes on a extra violent edge. A number of images and movies present members of “cow safety” teams chasing, capturing at and beating up truck drivers they declare are “smuggling” cows for slaughter.
Cows are thought of 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 turn out to be extra stringent for the reason that Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) got here into energy in 2014.
The vigilantes attacking truck drivers are usually intently 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 automobiles overturning throughout aggressive chases.
Elaine Pearson, Asia Director at Human Rights Watch, informed Bellingcat that cow safety has turn out to be a part of the political agenda of leaders of the BJP and in some instances they’ve backed the alleged actions of the suspects “whereas the police have did not take motion towards them”.
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Bellingcat and our companions on the Indian outlet Alt Information discovered movies on social media exhibiting 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 incessantly been reported.
(Editor’s observe: We’re not sharing hyperlinks to those movies to keep away from amplifying content material depicting violent assaults seemingly concentrating on minority teams. Nevertheless, if you’re a journalist or researcher fascinated about acquiring this dataset, please electronic mail inquiries@bellingcat.com.)
A few of the leaders of those vigilante teams, after we reached out to them, claimed that they have been working intently 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 assist for the cow vigilantes after we might attain them.
Whereas these teams probably 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 mild on how they informally work collectively to hold out mob violence towards truck drivers.
Akhil Bharatiya Gau Seva Samiti (ABGS)
In a video uploaded in February this yr, a number of males in automobiles are seen chasing a truck down a freeway at night time. A person from one of many automobiles pulls out a shotgun and fires on the truck. Police sirens could be heard within the background however legislation 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 response to 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 night time are routine and oftentimes, promoted by the belief itself.
ABGS president Bharat Gautam shared a publish 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 stated that cows are “not an animal”, however a mom determine in Hinduism.
Gautam claimed that his workforce works intently with Vrindavan police to avoid wasting cows from being slaughtered for meat. “We both go on the knowledge 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 stated, including that the police register instances towards the drivers based mostly on complaints filed by his workforce as soon as the automobile is caught. A number of calls by Alt Information to the Vrindavan police station’s normal line, in addition to to the direct strains of senior police officers from the district, to request for touch upon ABGS’ claims went unanswered.
“We assist the administration however they will’t do every little thing so it’s additionally our obligation to guard our faith, our mom,” stated Gautam.
Nevertheless, movies shared by his workforce reveal that the cows they declare to rescue are additionally incessantly injured throughout their automobile chases. For instance, a video from February final yr exhibits a pick-up truck that had overturned apparently because 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 images. In the meantime, the cows could be seen sprawled on the facet of the street, additionally apparently injured.
Gautam’s workforce operates in Uttar Pradesh, which is one in every of at the least 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 workforce’s use of violence, he shifted the blame onto the truck drivers. “Cow smugglers collide with our automobiles … shoot at us,” he stated.
ABGS’ headquarters are positioned in Vrindavan metropolis’s Venkatesh Temple. When Alt Information contacted the temple, they claimed to haven’t any reference to the group. “We solely lease out an area,” a temple workers member stated.
Gautam informed Alt Information that the temple does supply some assist to his workforce, 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 yr, 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 chargeable for sustaining legislation 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 concerning the Mathura police’s relationship with Gautam and whether or not they supported cow vigilantism.
Group Sonu Hindu Palwal
Whereas ABGS’ vigilante actions have been notably seen on social media, our investigations discovered it’s a part of a community of native teams based mostly in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana. In a video uploaded on June 27, Gautam says that cow vigilantes have been working below the steerage 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 automobiles chasing a truck, and two males being brutally overwhelmed and kicked.
Bellingcat geolocated the incident to a location exterior a police station in Beri within the state of Haryana based mostly on the bushes, lamp posts and a temple seen in one in every of these movies, posted by a member of “Group Sonu Hindu Palwal”.
This location matches studies of an assault that passed off in Beri on March 9, the place eight males have been arrested after a police officer on the scene filed a grievance. The officer’s grievance acknowledged that the mob shouted “we won’t depart you Muslims alive at present” 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 workforce named after himself referred to as “Group Sonu Hindu Palwal”. Palwal is the district in Haryana state the place his workforce primarily operates.
Sonu informed 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 likely one of the largest cow safety networks in India, and its chief informed Human Rights Watch in 2017 that the community’s volunteers have a presence in almost each state.
When requested concerning the incident in Beri, Sonu stated 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 stated – regardless that movies of the assault have been shared by members of his personal workforce.
Bellingcat additionally confirmed Sonu a number of movies posted by cow vigilante teams together with Group Bharat Gautam that both tagged Group 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 gaggle picture in one in every of these movies, regardless that he wasn’t proven assaulting anybody. When proven these movies, Sonu denied that his workforce beat folks up.
The cow vigilante chief didn’t immediately reply to our questions on what he thought of violence dedicated by members of his workforce, however stated: “Do no matter you need. Our job is to avoid wasting cows and we’ll 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 workforce 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 overwhelmed up by Sonu and his workforce in March have been arrested after a counter-complaint below animal cruelty and cow safety legal guidelines was filed towards 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 stated that the case has been transferred to the crime unit however was unable to supply any particulars of the investigating officers.
Nevertheless, bail orders for the 2 males who have been overwhelmed up, which Bellingcat discovered on the district courtroom web site of Palwal, indicated that they every spent at the least two months in custody earlier than being launched on bail.
Alt Information spoke to Sonu who stated that his workforce is tipped off by “informants” at any time when cows are being transported, receiving particulars such because the automobile’s route and licence plate quantity.
In keeping with Sonu, the rescued cows are taken to shelters, whereas the folks transporting them are handed over to the police. He stated that the police generally present up after a automobile is intercepted, however at different occasions the police are with the gau rakshaks throughout these incidents.
Alt Information’ inquiries to the Extra Superintendent of Police, Palwal about Sonu’s declare that the police accompanies his workforce of their pursuits of truck drivers went unanswered.
Bellingcat additionally discovered hyperlinks between Group Sonu and a Mumbai-registered charitable belief, via a photograph Sonu posted exhibiting 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 automobile 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 based mostly in Mumbai.
Sonu informed Alt Information that Shri Mahesh Chandra Dalmia Charitable Belief supported his workforce’s ambulance after native clergymen in Vrindavan launched the organisation to his work.
In keeping with the federal government’s NPO database, the belief works within the sectors of “Schooling & Literacy, Any Different, Well being & Household Welfare”. The trustee, or one that manages the belief, is listed as Satyadeo Banka.
Banka is often tagged on Fb in movies of Group Sonu’s assaults on truck drivers. His posts on the platform additionally incessantly promote concepts consistent 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 telephone and emailed him about his organisation’s relationship with Group 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 concerning the belief’s work over the telephone, and didn’t reply, as of the time of publication, to additional questions over electronic mail about whether or not the belief supported cow vigilantes in any approach.
Dwell For Nation
In 2021, Sonu congratulated somebody he known as “LFN’s Parveen” for becoming a member of the Haryana authorities’s cow safety power, in a publish on Fb. LFN is the abbreviation of “Dwell For Nation”, a registered NPO in Haryana’s Faridabad which goals to “save cows”. This group was additionally concerned in a automobile chase final yr that resulted within the loss of life of a 20-year-old man.
On Aug. 23, 2024, Aryan Mishra, 20, was out together with his pals on a drive when 5 cow vigilantes – all LFN members – allegedly “mistook” them to be cattle smugglers and commenced chasing their automobile earlier than firing at them. Mishra was killed within the incident.
One of many accused who was arrested, Anil Kaushik, reportedly informed Mishra’s father that he thought the boy was Muslim and regretted killing a Brahmin, the best rating caste within the Hindu caste system. Kaushik recognized himself as a member of Haryana authorities’s particular cow safety process power, which Parveen can also 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 power”. Vashisth additionally names the duty power whereas sharing movies on Instagram of cow vigilantes from Group Sonu Hindu chasing vehicles.
Alt Information reached out to the “Haryana Gau Seva Aayog”, the federal government physique chargeable for overseeing the duty power. Its chairman, Sharwan Garg, stated that anybody can interact in cow safety work independently, supplied they keep “throughout the limits of the legislation and coordinate with the authorities”.
Nevertheless, Vashisth’s movies on Instagram exhibiting Group Sonu Hindu chasing after vehicles, capturing 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, exhibiting vigilantes capturing a person they claimed was a “cow smuggler”. In a number of movies, the person appears gravely injured and bloody. His automobile can also be badly broken.
The organisation, “Gau Seva Mission”, is predicated in Vrindavan, like ABGS. Its chief, Govind Singh, is incessantly tagged in movies of assaults on alleged “cow smugglers” together with Bharat Gautam, Sonu and Parveen Vashisth.
Singh informed 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 identified to the Uttar Pradesh authorities. In November final yr, Singh uploaded images and movies of the chairperson of the Uttar Pradesh authorities’s cow service fee visiting his workplace.
Singh informed Alt Information he was once a member of the GRD – the NPO that Sonu is a member of – however left the organisation to start out 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 similar deal with because the workplace of the Vrindavan department of GRD at the least till March 2022, in response to 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 informed Alt Information that the group runs a hospital for cows.
Movies of injured cows being handled are all around the Fb web page of the organisation, and Gau Vansh Sewa Dham makes common appeals for donations to assist their rescue and aid efforts. Dahiya stated 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 concentrating on these transporting cattle. For instance, one publish 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 gaggle of vigilantes – additionally together with Sonu – posed for an image with a number of captured males.
Nevertheless, when Alt Information requested if the automobile chases ever obtained violent, Dahiya stated, “We don’t need to do any incorrect by our arms”. And when requested if he had ever completed something incorrect, 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 informed Alt Information.
Shalaka Shinde contributed analysis to this piece.
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