In the early hours of June 5, Junaid and Armaan, residents of Bhopal, were returning from Dhanura village near Vidisha after loading their vehicles with cattle, when at around 2.30 pm, another vehicle blocked their way, forcing them to stop. A group of about 10–15 people approached, started attacking them, and recorded videos.
Junaid told the police at Sanchi in Vidisha district, “They were making a video of us when they defeated us … After that, they sat in our vehicle and sat in the car, defeating us, and brought Armaan to Sanchi police station,” Junaid, a seriously injured, told the police in Sanchi in Vidwa district, after which an FIR was lodged on 6 June.
On 17 June, Junaid died due to his injuries.
The alleged videos of the incident have gone viral since then, the main accused, people uploaded on social media by Dhruv Chaturvedi. The video is now part of the evidence being investigated by the police, and sub-division police officer Pratibha Sharma said that the clip is being seen.
Chaturvedi was the leader of the group who surrounded two people, allegedly assaulted him, and handed him over to the police. Chaturvedi’s group stopped Junaid and Armaan near a school in Vidisha-Kadi Road in Mehgaon village.
Junaid, in his statement, said in his statement for the police, “Some of these people were taking sticks. They dropped us from the vehicle and started abusing us with the dishonest language of their mothers and sisters. He said that we are taking cows away and we should be killed today. Then they started beating us with sticks.”
He also told the police that Armaan has “retained injuries on his head, legs, stomach and entire body, and I have also maintained injuries to both hands, both legs, back and body”.
He said that the accused took both of them to Sanchi police station, from where the police took him to Sanchi Hospital.
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One of the video showed Charuvedi, anger at the police after taking two people to the police station. “We put our lives at risk and chased the vehicle … The police did not take any responsibility in this matter and argued the jurisdiction. The police should support us, but are not doing so,” he said “he said” there is no police patrol … we investigate every alternative day “.
Chaturvedi and two others, Gagan Dubey and Rampal Rajput were arrested on 6 June, said Nitin Aharwar at the Saini police station. “There are many criminal cases against him. Chaturvedi has more than a dozen criminal cases to create public disorders,” said Aharwar.
According to the police, Chaturvedi started activities of vigilance in 2022, focusing on alleged cattle smugglers. Since then, he claimed that he has developed his own network of informers. “We have our own source to tell us about the movements of the smugglers of cattle,” he described the local media describing the operations that are often late at night without police coordination. He has also highlighted his activities on social media.
On social media, he has also shown a pattern of calls for organized action and inflammatory rhetoric. He has also criticized BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan for celebrating Eid with the Muslim community.
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He has also protested against filmmaker Anurag Kashyap. A senior police officer said, “He has also demanded to the district administration that only Hindus be allowed to set up shops during the Ram Leela Mela festival.”
Chaturvedi holds a mekshift gym on the roof of his house where he regularly “works with a mace and other traditional gym equipment”, the police said.
In mourning, Junaid’s family said that he never went far away from home and night of the incident, he left that he would return in four-five hours.
“On June 4, around midnight, he left to unload the tomatoes, saying that he would return in four-five hours. But he never returned,” said his younger brother Zaid.
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His cousin Anwar Qureshi said, “Junaid worked as a porter in welding, vegetable market, and did the construction work. He sometimes went away with trucks to take off the goods, but never went away.”
(Tagstotransite) cow vigilance
