A Bajrang Dal activist named Pradeep Kumar was the third Hindu who fell prey to Islamist violence that convulsed Haryana on July 31 following an attack on a Hindu precession in the Nuh district.
In our previous report, we detailed how Pradeep Kumar was rescued safely from the Nalhar temple, where several Hindus were hiding to save themselves from the Islamist mob, and brought to the Nuh police lines. The Islamists, however, ruthlessly killed him on the intervening night of July 31 (Monday) and August 1 (Tuesday), while he was returning from the police station.
Besides Pradeep Kumar, the unrest killed two other Hindus namely Shakti Saini and Abhishek Rajput and two Homeguards.
OpIndia has now accessed the FIR registered in the murder case of Pradeep Kumar. The FIR was filed on August 2, 2023, a day after he was killed by a murderous mob of over 200 people. The FIR was filed by Pawan Kumar, another Bajrang Dal activist who was accompanying Pradeep Kumar when he was attacked and killed.
Pawan Kumar, in his complaint named one Javed Ahmed as the prime accused. He said that the mob had launched the vicious attack on Pradeep Kumar and other Bajrang Dal members accompanying him, on Javed Ahmed’s orders. Notably, the accused Javed Ahmed is a leader of the Aam Aadmi Party.
The complaint Pawan Kumar in the FIR, the copy of which is with OpIndia, stated that on the night of July 31 at around 10.30 pm, he, Pradeep Kumar and other Bajrang Dal activists were returning home in the complainant’s Swift Dzire car when the Islamists mob launched a vicious attack on their car. His car was being followed by two cars belonging to other Bajrang Dal activists and a police van was also escorting them.
He said that when their car reached Sohna Road, the police asked the Bajrang Dal members to proceed on their own. They assured them that the police officers stationed in the Sohna area had done all required security checks and the route was clear.
They had only travelled a short distance without the police when an unfamiliar speeding Scorpio car started following them. Their car must have travelled only a kilometre or two on the Kundli–Manesar–Palwal Expressway (KMP Expressway), when, suddenly the Scorpio car intercepted them. Within seconds, from nowhere, a mob of around 150 Islamists came and started pelting stones at their car, because of which they lost control of the car and it went and hit the divider on the road.
Pawan Kumar further stated when the car stopped he was forced to get out of the car. Javed Ahmed, who was leading the mob shouted- “Kill them all, I will take care of the consequences.”
“Responding to the clarion call made by Javed Ahmed, 20-25 Islamists armed with iron rods, stones, guns and other weapons rushed towards us and started thrashing us,” Pawan Kumar stated in the FIR, adding that the mob opened the car door, dragged Pradeep Kumar out, and started to beat him as well.
The complainant further stated in the FIR that when the police saved him and were taking him to the hospital, he saw Islamists continuously thrashing Pradeep Kumar with iron rods and sticks. The police later rescued Pradeep Kumar and took him to the Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi where he succumbed to his injuries.
Who is Javed Ahmed mentioned as the prime accused in the FIR
The complainant in the FIR specifically mentioned not once but many times that the prime accused behind the attack and murder of Bajrang Dal activist Pradeep Kumar was a man identified as Javed Ahmed. Since the FIR only mentioned the name of the accused, OpIndia, in its effort to try and get some more information about him, spoke to the complainant Pawan Kumar.
Pawan Kumar confirmed to OpIndia that Javed Ahmed in no other than the Aam Aadmi Party leader from the Sohna constituency in Haryana. He said that he was the one who had orchestrated the crowd and instigated them to launch a murderous attack on Pradeep Kumar and other Bajrang Dal activists.
Pawan Kumar continued, “The Islamist mob responded to his clarion call and charged at us and other defenceless Hindus present there while shouting ‘Allah hu Abar’ and ‘Pakistan Zindabad’.”
When we asked Pawan Kumar if he was certain that the AAP leader was leading the Islamists, he responded in the affirmative. He claimed that he recognises him very well since he has often seen him and his family members moving around through the lanes of Haryana’s Sohna district.
After speaking to Pawan Kumar, we tried to dig further to gather some more information about the accused Javed Ahmed. While searching, we came across a press note released by the Aam Aadmi Party, Haryana unit on August 2, 2022, which announced Javed Ahmed’s appointment as the state coordinator of AAP’s minority cell.
Notably, after Aam Aadmi Party won the Punjab elections in 2022, several ex-ministers, MLAs of Haryana and their followers joined the party. Javed Ahmed who was previously Sohna assembly’s BSP candidate also joined AAP during an event held at the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) headquarters in Delhi on March 14, 2022.
हरियाणा से कई नेता आम आदमी पार्टी में हुए शामिल।
— AAP Haryana (@AAPHaryana) March 14, 2022
समालखा से पूर्व निर्दलीय विधायक रविंद्र मछरौली आम आदमी पार्टी में हुए शामिल।
सोहना से BSP से चुनाव लड़ 40,000 वोट लेने वाले जावेद अहमद आम आदमी पार्टी में हुए शामिल। pic.twitter.com/CcRKmbJNNy
Meanwhile, Pradeep Kumar, a resident of the Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh, was an office bearer of the Bajrang Dal unit in Gurugram. Being the sole breadwinner of his family, he used to do odd jobs to support them. People associated with the Gurugram unit of Bajrang Dal said that the police will be sending the deceased’s body directly to his native village Baghpat after the autopsy is done and other legal formalities are completed.
As the religious procession came under attack in Nuh, Haryana on July 31, 2023, Hindu devotees revealed to OpIndia and several other platforms that stones were pelted at them from the rooftops, young Muslim boys and men had taken to the mountainous area and were shooting at them from the peaks, acid bottles were thrown at them and several women were harassed. During the violence, several women and children (ranging anywhere between 2000-2500) had taken shelter at the Temple and were rescued only hours later by the police.
OpIndia reported how another Bajrang Dal activist named Abhishek Rajput was shot dead in the violence that the mob unleashed against thousands of Hindu devotees who were participating in the VHP Shobha Yatra on Monday. After shooting Abhishek Rajput, Islamists slit his throat with a sharp weapon and crushed his head with stones, the extent of brutality which is normally associated with terror outfits like the Taliban.
Notably, it has been revealed about Nuh violence that its preparations were being done for 6 months. During the attack, AK-47 was fired on the people surrounding the temple premises. A 14-year-old boy was also shooting.
