Dangerous criminal mafias have exposed the soft underbelly of the Indian state once again. Two police officers have been crushed to death in two separate incidents in Haryana and Jharkhand.

DSP Surendra Singh Bishnoi

Around noon on Tuesday, Tauru DSP Surendra Singh Bishnoi (59) was run over by the mining mafia in Panchaon, Nuh district of Haryana. He had gone for a surprise inspection in Aravalli hills area in Pachgaon near Tauru where illegal mining was suspected. Upon reaching the site, he signaled a stone-laden truck to slow down and show documents. However, the driver sped up and ran over him, killing him instantly.

The DSP was accompanied by his driver, gunman and reader – they all managed to jump to safety, but DSP Bishnoi was hit. The truck driver was likely aiming especially for him.

Jolted into action after the brutal murder of their senior police officer, Haryana Police constituted special teams to nab the culprits. During their search operation, they ran into one of the accused Iqrar, who was arrested after a shootout.

An FIR was registered at Nuh’s Sadae Tauru police station on the complaint of the reader of the DSP. The case has been registered under IPC sections 302, 307, 333, 353, 186, 120B, 379, 188, 506 and section 21(4) Mines and Minerals (regulation of development) Act 1957, 3(2) Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, and 25 Arms Act 1959.

“When DSP inquired about the bricks, one of the occupants of the trucks brandished a pistol and dared the police team to stay away,” police stated in their FIR. There were five to six people inside the truck and they decided among themselves not to stop the vehicle. “They will fine us for mining. Let us teach them a lesson for stopping us,” the occupants said according to the FIR. The FIR also says occupants of the dumper were carrying country-made pistols.

DSP Surendra Singh Bishnoi was set to retire in just three months. As per sources, he was an upright police officer who was also very active against the other criminal mafia that plagues this region, cattle smugglers.

SI Sandhya Topno

In the second shocking incident, female sub-inspector Sandhya Topno was mowed to death on Tuesday night by a vehicle smuggling cattle in Jharkhand’s Ranchi district. She was posted as in charge of Tupudana OP.

Ranchi’s Senior Superintendent of Police Kaushal Kishore said, “She had received information that a vehicle was transporting cattle. When she tried to stop it, the driver dashed at her. She was declared dead in the hospital.” The accused has been arrested and the vehicle has been seized, the SSP said.

The accused’s name was not revealed in most mainstream media reports, but OpIndia has just reported that his name is Nigaar Khan. 

In June, UP Police Head Constable Dharambir Yadav was crushed to death in a similar fashion by the beef mafia in Kushinagar, eastern UP. Cattle smuggling is rampant in almost all states of Bharat, but the problem is especially acute in Jharkhand which borders West Bengal.

This old footage shows angry locals in Ranchi rescuing cattle stuffed into pick-up trucks, and clashing with police. Incidents of cattle smugglers being arrested and dozens of animals being rescued are a routine occurrence –

18 Cattle Smugglers Held With 104 Animals in Jharkhand’s Giridih District – Sept, 2021

FIR against 3 ‘for smuggling cattle’ in Simalbera village of Jharkhand – June, 2022 (note how the TOI headline uses scare quotes to cast doubt – ignoring the serious nature of the crime detailed in their own report – on whether those arrested were smuggling cattle or not)

Ten cattle smugglers held on Jharkhand-Odisha border – March, 2019

However, despite the obvious threat posed to police and law-abiding citizens by the cow smuggling mafia, the conviction rates of those arrested for this illegal trade is abysmally slow – a clear failure of the soft secular Indian State.

If hardened criminals are not punished to the full extent of the law via speedy trials, is it any wonder that they are so emboldened today, safe in the knowledge that an entire nexus of lawyer-activists-intelligentsia is ever-ready to come to their defense and project them as the ‘victims’?

Mewat – a cancerous hub of radical Islam

Nuh district of Haryana is part of Muslim-majority Mewat, a historical region which encompasses Nuh and parts of adjoining states of Rajasthan (Bharatpur and Alwar districts) and UP (Mathura district). As per Census 2011, Muslims constitute 79.2% and Hindus 20.3% of the population in Nuh district, but activists estimate that the Hindu population has shrunk to around 10-11% by now due to sustained persecution and atrocities. 

A 3-member fact-finding team constituted by VHP in 2020 unearthed the chilling fact that in the last 25 years, Hindus had totally disappeared from 50 villages in the area. Apart from being a hub of cow smuggling, Mewat is also infamous as a hub of illegal firearms makers, ATM theft gangs, and sextortion gangs. Even police is scared of operating against Mewati criminals, and have reportedly filed affidavits in court submitting that their lives are in danger when on duty.

The radicalization of Muslims in the area can be traced back to the fundamentalist pan-Islamic proselytisation movement Tablighi Jamaat which was born in Mewat around 100 years back as an offshoot of the Deobandi school of Islam, in order to reform the perceived ‘un-Islamic’ Meo Muslims of the area.

Last year, an SC bench headed by CJI Ramanna had brushed aside a plea to investigate persecution of Hindus and their exodus from Mewat with a dismissive “can’t go by newspaper reports” comment.